Love Phantom

I am your love phantom,
        your elusive dream,
                your Zhivago. 
 
I am the woman you've wanted all your life,
but never really believed she existed.

And then one day,
        I walked into your life,
        and it felt like you had known me forever.
        
But you were quite unprepared
        for loving me,
        knowing full well
                there was someone else
                who loved me, too.
                
Still, you allowed your heart
        to fly free,
        to open to me
                to take me in.
                
You fell madly and hopelessly in love with me,
        couldn't help it,
        never intended to,
        feeling that no one else could ever,
                in a thousand lifetimes,
        be as warm and wonderful
        as me.
        
Now you see me torn,
        my heart split in two,
        loving her,
                and loving you, too.
Still, you hope beyond hope,
        that someday,
                somehow,
        I will be yours alone.
        
How, or when, or even if,
        matters not,
        you're willing to share me
                with her,
        as long as you have to,
        though you don't want to,
                but you will.
                For now.
                
You are obsessed,
        possessed,
        driven by fierce desire,
                a fire
                that glows,
                persistent, unquenchable.

And so, you wait,
even if it takes a lifetime,
for the dream to become reality.

--2/14/94