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.
Copyright © Helen J Radford | Year Posted 2008
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