if, one day

 

If, one day, when you have your sabanas blancas wife,
When looking at her wide child-bearing hips,
Her work-worn red hands, her narrow lips,
You should think of one of your very first loves,
Remember me kindly,
Remember me kindly.

And if, should you think of me,
And remember a night when I cried
Because your way of loving seemed so curt,
Remember not my tears, my streaming hurt,
But only the soft night,
Only the soft night.

And, remembering these things,
Try to understand how it was with me,
Those times that will one day be long ago –
Times that I pushed you away from me,
And told you to go.
Oh, told you to go ……

Catherine Broughton