MAYBE IT WAS OORLA

There was a girl
Allison or Agnes
or… maybe it was Oorla.
I dunno.
I told her I loved her
and I’d love her forever
and, for that moment
– maybe a night,
maybe a week,
maybe three pout two months –
I meant it
and believed it
and acted like it was true.

Now,
her name is lost to me
and what love
there might have been
evaporated into the ether
long ago.

It wasn’t false,
what I said to her
– though, honestly,
some things I said were –
but it wasn’t entirely
universally true.

I don’t love her now
and I hate to be made a liar
so I will not say those words again.
Some oaths
should not be uttered falsely.
I love you today
plan to love you tomorrow
and hope to love you
for all days further.

Will that do?