Wendy Cope via WritersAlmanac.org.
Some men never think of it.
You did. You’d come along
And say you’d nearly brought me flowers
But something had gone wrong.The shop was closed. Or you had doubts-
The sort that minds like ours
Dream up incessantly. You thought
I might not want your flowers.It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, look, the flowers you nearly brought
Have lasted all this while.
This poem was in my inbox on Monday. The first stanzas perfectly capture a scene that Tina and I have enacted countless times from both sides. And the arrival of the poem was apropos because I didn’t yet have a card for Tina’s birthday on Tuesday.
In fact, though I tried, I never managed to get a birthday card for her this year. I didn’t forget her birthday — I got her gifts from me and even took Cora shopping to get some gifts from baby to mommy — I just never managed to get a card to go with them.
This isn’t the first time this has happened: Mother’s Day was the same story.
Love forgives. People change. Hope remains.