Meditation On St Valentine's Day (Poetry)

So much for romance — young love’s vows undying
that novelty of all-consuming crush
those moon-eyed looks and such dramatic sighing
the quiver in the voice, the cheek’s rose-flush
pure happiness contained in just one name
nothing from then on could be the same...

What changed and slowed the heart’s excited beating?
What cooled the blood — denied the cheek its bloom?
Who could forget the thrill of that first meeting?
Those forevers ended sudden and too soon.
That hot intoxicating flood turned to a trickle
then dried when fancy showed itself so fickle.

It had seemed much more than just a storm of kisses
that hurricane that swept aside all thought
they revelled in its blast — made dizzy wishes
so overwhelmed — imaginations caught
in passion’s wave of blind and frantic fever
he swore (hand on his heart) he’d never leave her...

They spoke for hours — emailed, phoned and texted
their communications urgent — so intense
short silences would find them both dejected
and anxious what a brief hiatus meant
then all at once the intensity abated
and what was loved became the almost-hated.

So, so much for hearts & flowers dried and fading.
Love was doomed from that first clumsy kiss
those yellowed cards long-since disintegrating
and faces lost to memory’s vague mist...
Decanonized — reduced to quaint tradition
nostalgia claims the day by definition.