Opportunity Lost

Linda Berroth-Linderman

The truth is there

Leaving no uncertainty

For you know too well

The players left

Long ago proving

Opportunity Lost.

Isolation without aim

Found your best triumph

A cold victory

Emptiness cannot be held

For now the weather has cooled

As has affections

Soon depth of understanding

Will allow floodgates to open

As answers all lie in

Opportunity Lost

  As you linger among

Past emotional baggage

To navigate by a sign

Which obscures validation

And burdens perspective

You taste tears of defeat

Flavored by Opportunity Lost

It's all catching up

As you regain your senses

But much too late

For  results to date

Are not enough.

Open your eyes

There is no glory

 In Opportunity Lost

I made time

Assessed matters

Letting conscience guide me

I did all I could

Waiting seemed endless

The chill captured me

My bones became brittle

As desolation captured my heart

With Opportunity Lost

It's only by illumination

Of my failures

In this personal quest

That I can again start

To measure success

Regaining belief in others

Would mean overcoming

Doubt you taught me

Through Opportunity Lost

I recognized an opportunity

For trusting my heart

And stepping back into life

I found I was accepted

And appreciated for

All you despised within me

Something graced my face

It began upon my lips

I had forgotten how to smile

Through all the tears

Brought on by desertion

And realization of Opportunity Lost

I can look to our past

And with  experience

I find strength in

Blessed enlightenment,

I refused to continue to live

Suffering in silence,

Crippling heartache

Feeling like a dying spirit

With cold disregard

For Opportunity Lost

It amazes me

That concern should be

The topic now.

And focus of dread has only

Woken you much too late

But just in time to see exactly

How much Opportunity Lost.

You squandered your time

Looking for trouble

Wandering in darkness

No word did you speak

Not once did you reach out

For all that concerned you

Had no mention of me

Just your Opportunity Lost

 When all your chances were over

And we were so through

Only then did you even begin

To try and read more into

Your inadequate ways.

Your broken promises

Left no room for blame

To be cast upon others.

Twas surely your Opportunity Lost

Your struggle for reasons

Reminded me of an

Unfinished work of poetry

Why do you now select

Such an inopportune time

To begin to worry and fret

About the branches that

Have long ago snapped

With the passing season

All I have proven to be is simply

Another Opportunity Lost