Moonlit waves caressed the sand.
She touched him with a delicate hand.
She nestled up and pulled him near.
What would unfold was perfectly clear.

Afterward not a word was spoken.
The perfect silence was never broken.
They lay never more than an inch apart.
She feared that he would break her heart.

Eventually the sun arose.
They both got up and donned their clothes.
Still they didn’t try to talk.
Hand in hand they began to walk.

They strolled along the pure white shore
but couldn’t stay silent anymore.
She paused and touched him on the cheek.
Carefully she began to speak.

“Is it real?” her question came.
“Do you care, or is it just a game?”
The query cut him like a knife.
The hardest question of his entire life.

Back then when he was so much younger
he’d satisfy his lascivious hunger
by doing whatever most young men would
to get what he wanted whenever he could.

But she was different. She was the first
who was more than a way to quench his thirst.
He couldn’t look into her piercing eyes
and utter silly boyish lies.

Yet years of playing courtship games
of many different kinds and names
had taken their toll upon his head
and left his emotions almost dead.

“It’s not a game,” he finally replied.
A little of her fear then died.
“It’s as real as it’s ever been for me.”
His reply didn’t satisfy her completely.

She stared as if looking into that space
behind his eyes, behind his face
where nothing can ever run or hide
because it’s where our souls reside.

And then she stood beneath his chest
and put a hand upon his breast
and gave a firm rejecting shove.
“Come back to me when you can love.”

He left her on that desolate beach
a treasure that he could not reach.
Decades passed with them apart.
He heard another had taken her heart.

And then by chance they met one day
in a very mundane way.
He was shopping in a grocery store.
She walked in through the middle door.

They sensed each other, their eyes then met.
On both their faces was regret.
He mustered up a sheepish smile.
They walked to a private spot in the aisle.

With old emotions they were graced.
They kissed and also they embraced.
They knew that soon they both must go.
But he had to ask what he wanted to know.

“Are you happy?” he softly said.
Her eyes dropped and so did her head.
“It’s not the best that it could be.
But it’s as real as it will ever be for me.”

Shortly after they left the store.
They didn’t see each other anymore.
He returned to his solitary life.
She went back to being a good wife.

Things are rarely black and white.
Often one’s not sure what's right.
That night both would lie awake
wondering if they had made a mistake.