Twenty Years Ago, Yesterday

Hand in hand on the sidewalk,
our shadows followed us, then sprang ahead
as we walked under the sodium lamps.
You kissed away the February rain
that wet my lips. That was twenty years ago,
that was yesterday, my love, that was only yesterday.

I gave you a rose, you gave me steel,
and we drove together out the east side of town
on Powell Boulevard (there were fewer houses then)
looking for warmth. We lighted up the night
and it still burns. Though that was twenty years ago,
that was yesterday, my love, that was only yesterday.

Time is a dream; the clock lies when it ticks
and teaches the brain to fear age and death.
The heart knows better. Time eats us up
and changes us, but can’t destroy any truth
the heart learned, though it was twenty years ago.
That was yesterday, my love. That was only yesterday.