What If?

How do I think of you as the past perforates the now? Do I see you as the boy you were, or as the man you became when you broke away from me somehow? Did I love you then? Or were we lost in the headiness of youth? We spoke of dreams and futures lost and broken now, and we have lived a different truth. Yet here we are again; The present invaded by the then. Your voice still sounds familiar - the laugh, the intonation the same as when we were together last in the dimming, distant past. Once faded memories sharpened as we bring them into focus once again, and once again the feelings surge, merging with today's perception; conception of a new beginning, mending dreams and daring to think of what could have been if we had trodden the same, not different, paths.