by: Diana Thompson
A chance encounter with a specter from the past inspires a search for forgiveness….
A lifetime has passed since our worlds have crossed
You glance up, catch my smile
A thread of familiarity
Quickly transforms into disbelief
An unexpected, unwanted reunion
Neither of us could avoid
My thoughts fill with shame
For I have not changed
My acts of deceit are the same
You look well
Still wearing paradox as your stance
Outwardly collected, frazzled within
I question whether forgiveness ever found you
Or did resentment change you?
Time is a jester who laughs alone
For neither of us needed this reminder
That our youth is gone
Committed to our morning routine
We stand silent on the platform’s edge
Our eyes play an adult version of hide and seek
But, we are far from strangers
You have witnessed me vulnerable
I’ve watched you betray all that you know
Our limbs have bore the marks of isolation
Our whispers spawned comfort when all we knew how to do was moan
I daydream about who you’ve become
With generations of comfort behind you
I’m sure you had the option of choosing well
Some righteous cause
That breeds false realities
And coaxes you to sleep at night
But you deserve the illusion of happiness
I know how deep your anxiety lies
The social ticks that go mostly unnoticed
Yet keep you a prisoner
With no one by your side
My years have not betrayed me
The pledge I made as a child
Your heart would ache at hearing my escapades,
My crimes
Yet, somehow life has steered me somewhere safe
Mirroring the identity you were bred to embrace
I struggle with whether this world is truly mine
Or am I just a visitor biding time?
So here we are now
Stoic statues
Frozen in our silence
Decades gone
Crushed pinwheels
Our youth a distant song.
