Douglas Hozea's "Of Lost Love" looks back on a close friendship that was just turning into something more. The speaker remembers ordinary, happy moments: talking all day, keeping each other company, praying together, lying in the grass looking for stars. Other people said the two should date, but the speaker, "blinded by friendship," tucked the idea away. Then comes a morning text saying "i love you / more than a friend," and the speaker is thrilled.
The mood turns sharply in the last lines. Only minutes later, a phone call says the friend has "left / me and us all / to go to a better place," which suggests the friend has died. The opening line, "Why me," now reads as grief and disbelief. The poem's plain, simple language makes the loss feel raw, and the sadness comes from what never got the chance to happen: "another step" together.