Only Once

March 2026

Only Once

by Clive Weslake

When I was very young

and life was new

My world was always full

of dreams

Growing old was far away

No tomorrow, just today

Nothing is the way it seems.

I knew that one day

I would fall in love

The way young people always do

How could I know what lay ahead?

Life played games with me instead.

I didn’t count on meeting you.

Only once

I always thought that love came

only once

That when you fell,

You fell in love to stay.

Now, all at once,

I realize it isn’t so

That love can come

and love can go

It happens every day.

He was mine

With him I found a world

that could not end

Or so I thought,

Right up until today

Then all at once

I looked across

and saw you there

And suddenly,

I knew,

Nothing I could do

Would make me look away.

Then all at once

I looked across

and saw you there

And suddenly I knew,

Nothing you could do

Would make me look away.