Kayleigh

by Marillion

Kayleigh - I just want to say I'm sorry,

But Kayleigh
I'm too scared to pick up the phone.
To find you've found another lover
to patch up our broken home.

Kayleigh,
I'm still trying to write that love song,
Kayleigh it's more important to me now you're gone.
Maybe it'll prove that we were right
Or it will prove that I was wrong.
+++++++++++++

I remember the day I met Diane Burchett. She was the first girl I truly loved. I'd stumbled into 'Campus Life' - a Christian Youth group that I sorta hung out with during my Junior and Senior year of high school. I think it was a time-filler, mostly, but it was also the eternal 'search for God'.
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In December of my Senior year, I met her on the band practice field. I think it was Mark Brennan who brought a Nerf football out and we (Mark Brennan, Kevin Brennan, Randy Reisling, Andy Van Buren, Jay Fulton, Diane Burchett, me) were all throwing it around. Finally, the football landed in Diane's hands. I tackled her full-on, but still landing on my forearms to cushion the fall.
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By the time I tackled her, she heaved the ball into the air. As I got up, I kissed her smack-dab on the lips, then pulled her to her feet and just ran away - like a 6 year old playing kissy-face on the playground. half-serious, half-not, 100% infuriating to the girl involved.
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We talked a few times, here and there, until I asked her out for Senior Prom. After Prom, Brian Long joked, "I got more than you at Prom and all I got was a good-night kiss."
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But, the funny thing was that I didn't even attempt to kiss Diane goodnight. Just another way that the perception of the click got in the way, I guess.
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That Summer, I went to Summer Camp for the entire Summer. In the afternoons when the Boy Scouts were too busy swimming to come to the Nature Area, I wrote letters to Diane - and Christa Smith, and Tammy Blanke, and Amy Froehlich...bored.
.
Anyway, Diane and I started swapping notes more and more until I returned from Summer camp. During my Freshman year at Ohio U and her Senior year at RHS, we started dating - and in fact, we dated for almost two years.
.
It was my longest relationship (including my marriage) - and probably the one I miss the most. Diane had a lot of soft qualities I loved in a female friend. I wrote her several poems, but I doubt any one captured the feeling. I guess that's how it goes with love.