Often I wake from a dream with memories of a time long ago,

I dreamed of when I held you tight as we danced ever so slow,

Seldom do perfect moments arrive as given to us that night,

Love kisses cleansed by teardrops shared erases any delight,

A year earlier I vowed to never leave love on the dance floor,

My heart made a promise to you before I left through the door,

Molecules of love filled my veins as each beat made love flow,

I pray that I can share with others this wonderful love we know,

So many young men other than me were also drafted to arms,

Others had to leave true love with her beauty and her charms,

Young love during that time knew cars, dances, music and war,

Our parents knew war with one thing more, what they fought for,

I prayed for a miracle asking God that I’d return home to you,

Though the journey was difficult and hard it’s what I had to do,

Prayer and dreams of you helped me cope with the evils I knew,

Beatings and torture paved a path I would take to get to you,

The greatest treasure I’ll ever own is a photograph of you I kept,

During hardest of times I wrapped it in foil up my anus as I slept,

Today I still have that treasure that amazingly was never soiled,

A kind nurse once found it and framed it, of that I became spoiled,

I woke from surgery with your image smiling sweetly at me,

Truly I must say it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever see,

I have made promises to you but all I’ve managed to keep,

After each dance I’ve said “I love you Patti, ever so deep”,

When I was eighteen and you were fourteen I crawled in to you,

Through another girls window I saw you there, I knew what to do,

I had dreamed of you but had never met you, yet I still had to say,

“I love you, and I am going to marry you, I will marry you some day,

When discharged I promised to return in May to be with you,

You graduated from high school and I did as I promised to do,

Fifty seven years I’ve loved you and for fifty two we’re married,

Time has flown, but I know it’s from all this love for you I carried.

The end, I love you my sweet angel. For Patti by Pat