Life's Other Lovers

I read emails like love stories
A passion filled play
Of longing and yearning
Will she go? Will she stay?
It's a breathless revival
Of a truth long discovered
That your first love is the best love
Once that love is uncovered.

I have a ring-covered finger
Up a still-empty hand
The promises meant to fill it
Were given with the same plan
To hold her and keep her
But she isn't me
I read love like a history book
Of lovers I'll never be.

What a beautiful plot
To woo with a fervor
The love of your life
So you may never lose her
But when loss comes and goes
As loss often does
You must try to move on
With the least painful cost.

I read emails like love stories
Between two lost lovers
That gave all that they had
And left none for future others
So we "others" will keeping reading
To find what we lack
To dream of fictional futures
We have only to look back.