Like the girl in Lennon-McCartney’s big hit, “I Saw Her Standing There,” I was just seventeen when love, in the form of an Alberta girl named Marja, blew into my life on a rainy night in Toronto. The refrain paraphrases two key lines in this 1963 song by The Beatles. The verses imagine a conversation with a young single person around this crucial question: “Can you live without her?” I couldn’t, so we got married four days after my 19th birthday.
Can you live without her?
If you can, let her go
But if you can’t
Reach for her hand
Move on in tandem with her
Not someone else
With her
Love blew in on a west wind
Lit a flame deep within
I knew the moment
That rain-drenched moment
That she was perfect for me
Not someone else
For me
I was 17 when she first made
My heart boom
My eyes still light up when I see her
Cross a room
I wish you what you long for
Someone who loves you back
May joy surprise you
Revitalize you
With someone who’s right for you
Not someone else
For you
I was 17 when she first made
My heart boom
My eyes still light up when I see her
Cross a room
© Peter Slofstra • 2021 • Orillia, Ontario