"Just Once" by Emma McCoy

---

I pick at the white linen tablecloth just a little

and I do not meet your eyes just yet though     I want to

because I am not ready for that yet though

we talked on the phone just last week and the most

intense part should be over right?

when I came to your wedding and you came

to mine and I cheered with the force of a thunderstorm

and your face was like the rain breaking

and now not one but two decades have passed

and I cannot meet your eyes because I cannot

say how deeply I love you and God

says deep calls to deep at the roar of the waterfalls

and I say my soul calls to yours at the whisper

of the sidewalk corner when we walk

to different cars and look back once at different times

now let me say this once I love you in every way I can

---

Emma McCoy is a poet and essayist with love for the old stories. She is the assistant editor of Whale Road Review, co-editor of Driftwood, and poetry reader for the Minison Project. She is the author of “In Case I Live Forever” (2022), and she has poems published in places like Flat Ink, Paddler Press, and Jupiter Review. Catch her on Twitter: @poetrybyemma