She never knew he loved her.
Years later
after everything had died down
friends let her know
and she had to be reminded who he was.
She said, wrinkling her forehead,
I remember getting a letter
from a secret admirer,
that he would graduate
then come back to marry me
and that I should wait for him.
But he never gave his name
or his address
so I had no way to ask
just how long to wait.

Eventually she married another
someone whose identity and location she needn’t guess.

He put a letter in the paper
congratulating her
but it wasn’t her local paper
so she didn’t see it.
She might not even have seen it
years later
after everything died down.

When asked if she suspected
his affections, she would remind
that, to her recollection,
they had never spoken.
He had never introduced himself.
She had no way to know him
as much of anything.

It’s strange, she said,
he would hardly have suffered
from too much shyness
considering.
Of course, she said that later
wrinkling her forehead
after everything had died down.