Prompt 10.1 Photographs and Memories/Writers Muses

Photographs and Memories

by Jim Croce

Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these to remember you
Memories that come at night
Take me to another time
Back to a happier day, when I called you mine

"Do you Danijela Viljac take Luka Kovac to be your husband?" Sitting here now, in my father's house, all these memories come flooding back. You were so beautiful, and after waiting so long, you were finally mine.  It's like a dream.  Even with you standing there in front of me, I still can't believe that the time we have talked about for so long has finally arrived.

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks
Oh, how I loved you then

The memory of waking to you in my arms on our first morning together.  You were still sleeping, and I remember thinking I had never seen you looking more beautiful then in that moment before you opened your eyes. When you woke up, you laughed at me, you kept saying how awful you looked, but you didn't, not to me. All I could think of on that morning was of the lifetime of other mornings we would have together.  I couldn't know then, that for us our lifetime would only last five years.

Summer skies and lullabies
Nights we couldn't say goodbye
And of all of the things that we knew
Not a dream survived

You gave me such beautiful babies, did I tell you that enough?  Jasna, she would have grown to look just like you, I know she would have.  I remember holding her on that first night we brought her home, she was so tiny, and I was so afraid that I would hurt her.  You were there though, with your soft words, and lullabies, and together we raised her to be a daughter any parent would be proud of. She loved Marko so much. We had so little time with our baby boy, I regret that so much, and it's a guilt I still struggle with after all these years.

Photographs and memories
All the love you gave to me
Somehow it just can't be true
It's all I've left of you

How can I ever apologize enough for not listening to you when you wanted to leave, for not realizing that nothing was as important as what we had between us?  You already knew that though, it's why you wouldn't leave.  You could have taken Marko and Jasna and gone to your parents, or mine, but, you didn't, you refused to leave for me, for us, for what we had between us, and it cost you all your lives.

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks
Oh, how I loved you then

I don't want to remember those times though, not now, not here.  Here I can can remember how it was in the beginning, when we were young, when we thought we had our entire lives ahead of us, when we still believed that love was the thing of fairy tales.  Only here can I find those memories.