You’re waiting for me around every corner;
Waiting to turn away as soon as I appear.
Songs, sweets, words, films…countless fragments
Of you were left littering my life when
We dropped our fragile friendship.

When I first almost saw your face, I knew that
You were significant. Now, I almost wish I had
Remembered what happened the last time
I thought that about anyone.

If this is making me stronger, it is doing so
By shining a harsh, overbearing light on
My many frailties; illuminating the cracks
In my soul that I have tried so hard to fill,
And causing to glow the patches where
I have worn paper thin.

Perhaps I did the same to you, and that is
Why you backed away into the cold, lonely
Safety of the shadows. Perhaps you wanted
Everyone to see you, but you feared being seen.

You seem as alien to me now as the world you
Inhabit: a land of concentric shapes, of
Lessons in suspended disbelief, of long evenings
Lit by floodlit buildings and illuminated bridges,
And of the ever creeping ivy of corporatism.

While I sit, gently tortured, in reality, I hope
That you are smiling in surreal suburbia,
Seeing your storybook life unfold in front of you,
And not thinking of me at all.

06/16/2013

Posted on 07/20/2013
Copyright © 2024 Richard Vince