The Strangeness of Familiarity

How can one once so familiar become so strange? 
The ease and flow of conversation, so stilted? 
Awkward even.  Our 'in-commonness' a rarity? 
Our connectedness disconnected? 

The once passionate embrace a tentative touch: 
a 'should I or shouldn't I' interrelation. 
Now so different to then - a then quite recent, 
yet distant in its memory. 

Do you feel the same as I? Or do you not feel 
any more?  Do you no longer love me? 
Or have you simply forgotten that you once did 
- or I you, so vehemently. 

Where did we misplace it?  Carelessly lost 
like the guarantee for the cooker. 
Perhaps it too can be found amongst the 
rancid rotten waste in the bin. 

How remiss we have been: carried on the wave 
of daily activity. Ships passing in the night 
without even a 'hoot' of acknowledgement. 
Two separate shadows in the darkness. 

This is a dangerous game we are playing. 
A contest with two losers and nothing to win. 
Come search the contents of the bin with me. 
We may just find what we are looking for 

in the mucky murky depths of memory. 
Or at the back of a disorganised drawer somewhere.   
If we search our hearts, maybe it still beats there?   
We'll never know unless we try.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2008

Poem

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