The Wrong Ones
       

There are those who make us sad,
maybe not at first; maybe at first

we love them and have been waiting
to love them all our lives, but maybe

they're really only second chances
to love those we had neglected

to love before—our mothers
and lovers, fathers and strangers—

and maybe we were right
not to love them the first time;

maybe our love was holding out
for a world of its own choosing

and those who make us sad now
make us sad because we're loving

the wrong ones, the ones we'd hoped
would grow smaller as we walked away

instead of showing themselves again
in those we have failed to love anew.

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Copyright © 2014 James Tolan All rights reserved
from Mass of the Forgotten
Autumn House Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission