An old salt’s lament

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

I will never love anyone but you,
from a song or
something I said
forty Years ago?
The sentence is a curse
and has left a wake of heartbreaks
on life’s stormy ocean.

Now that the old steamer
has reached safe harbour
and is fastened to a dream
I see that the image of
what you once were,
is the mirror
that reflects my futile love
for you.