Too Late

He sat in a favorite restaurant from long ago in a small Canadian town while eighties music played over the aging speakers. It could have been nineteen eighty something and he thought she could still be working there. He played out the scene in his mind, with her behind the counter and him sitting eating his hamburger and fries.  He didn’t talk to her then. He was alone and she with someone else. He discovered her too late, too many years later. When the sun was sinking on her and the tide was washing over their heads. They tried so hard he remembered as he fought to hold back the salty betrayal of his eyes. He hoped love would have held back the night but she left before the morning had a chance to smile. She was gone too soon - too sadly. Before he ever said goodbye. He acquiesced to the sadness knowing she could not escape her demons and he could not save her.  What was their love never ended. The night simply came and the light went out. He finished eating, the nostalgia and the memories a flood over his body. He whispered to her, “I am thinking about you. I think about you a lot these days. I miss you so much.”