last day of summer

Photo courtesy of pexels.com

on the beach we sat

side by side

watching the sunset

hand in hand

we counted down

the time

we still had together                                                      

this night

for you would be gone

by tomorrow

I will still be here with

our promises

to never forget these days

and short nights

regret

I should have held

onto you a bit longer

I should have told

you what I felt

I should have laid

my heart on the table

I should have spoken

the words on my tongue

But I was too afraid

of your rejection

I was too afraid that

you would laugh at me

I was too afraid you

wouldn’t love me back

I was too afraid to release

those words on my tongue

And now I am full of regret

that I let you slip away

and now I wonder about

what could have been

and now I sit here pondering

on how to move on

and now I write love poems

instead of living them

 - Written in response to Writers' Digest Poetic Aside April 2017 PAD Challenge Day 26 in which one is tasked to write a poem about regret.