Once we were

Once we were as children playing,
basking in the innocence of life
which God had given to us:
living in the brightness
of the joy that we had found
in just being who we were.
Such sparkling days,
where past and future
became our happy present!
The sun shone brightly;
all was fair for you and me:
and we were there.

Then one Summer day,
I turned around to find that
you were nowhere to be seen;
and when I called your name
it echoed through the emptiness
of where we'd been before
but would not be again.

And looking back once more,
I think it was a dream,
but that isn't how I feel.
In my heart I know
that we were there,
and I know that
we were real.