Poetry: The Parting of Friends (by Brianroy)

I spoke to her, but there was tension there:
It wasn’t the light of her eyes, nor the lilt of her hair.

Her voice spoke volumes, and yet in few words;
It wasn’t what was said, it was what I heard.

A sadness, a separation, a parting of friends;
And nothing I could do or say, could ever make amends.

A loss of interest, a polite greeting and pause:
No excuses, no reasons, no ‘just because.’

It was if there was shame, a shame of knowing me;
As if I were the one, that kept her from being free.


The fields of friendship between us were once green and flowing,
Like a meadow with a running brook, and shade trees growing.
We used to laugh and play, and rest every now and then;
And dip our feet in the waters together, and call each other, ‘Friend.’

And now I look across those fields, and see the beauty all gone;
The grasses all dried up and matted, and bramble bushes upon.

There is a dumping ground here now, where waste and refuse abound;
And little by little, trash grows into a mound.

The waters, once so pure and so sweet,
(which we tasted out of each other’s hands, as we played with our feet):
those waters are bitter now, too bitter to drink.
I wish it wasn’t so –I pray, and wish, and think.

Our lives flicker now, with memories come and gone;
Like the scenes of a late night movie (on a television left on).
The signal comes and goes, and words sometimes fade away;
But the hope still lingers, to dream of another day.

“You can’t reclaim the past to salvage what you have lost…”
“You can only keep memories a treasure…if you can only know their cost.”

“Memories are like a closet,” the Wise One once said;
“out of which treasures new and old come.” So don’t be misled.

As for me…
I shall go back in time,
To a more pleasant day of reason and rhyme;
Where she and I are lovers once again:
…in a field green and flowing,
with a meadow and a running brook, and shade trees growing:
where we can laugh and play, and rest now and then…
and dip our feet in the waters together,
and pour our hearts out to each other;
and call each other, ‘Friend.’