"What if this were the last time

I should ever see you," David said.

A frightened silence came between them.

Jonathon turned away his head,

Then looked at him again and spoke,

Why then, how very sharp and clear

The day would seem, how everything

That now we do or see or hear

Would burn in the memory

Forever, and how hungrily

I'd live each moment, clutching them

Till time had taken you from me.

How every smallest look or word

Or sign from you would flash and leap

To my heart and make a picture

Of you I might always keep

But David, this is not the last time,

This is among our first, instead."

"I know, but if it were," he said.