love is thought to last forever
simply because it’s love
all-enduring, everlasting, eternally strong
but as I stand among the ruins of love lost and love broken
I can’t understand why
all those idealistic dreams, bright young hopes, sweet embraces
fell one by one, crumbling into pieces never to be truly put together again.
did the flame that once burned so strong grow to be too much?
or did it simply fizzle out, never to be rekindled?
is this the way love is?
wonderful at first, but always ending in tragedy and sorrow?
must all eternal things end someday?

of course I have only been a bystander
an innocent observer of the course of love
as it sprung, hopeful and optimistic
sweeping its passengers along as soon as they embarked
I watched, curious as I observed the progress along the journey
the joyful meetings, the cherished time spent together, the anguish upon parting
and just when I was thinking that it would go on forever and never end
the ship hit an iceberg and the travelers fell into the cold ocean
their love frozen, never to be revived
and because this observer has never experienced the journey for herself
she worries about what it means for her, and the sorrows she may someday know
and she wonders, then, if it truly is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.