UNRAVELED, YET INTACT

"Unraveled, Yet Intact" reflects on fading friendships and the quiet ache of distance, capturing the tension between holding on and letting go.

Unraveled, Yet Intact

What is friendship?
Is it the fleeting messages on birthdays,
The silent follows,
The glimpses of lives lived through curated photos?

Can we still call it friendship,
When your laughter feels so distant,
When I only learn of your life
Through fragments on a screen?

Anger and sadness creep in.
Tears threaten to spill
As I think of you.
A pang of
A possessive ache lingers
When I see you laugh without me.

Why do I feel this way?
I don't know.
Or maybe I do.

Do you feel it too?
That pull, that yearning,
The question caught in my throat:
Do you miss me like I miss you?
Instead, I smile through tears-
Red-eyed, runny-nosed, aching.

Nothing happened between us.
Life happened.
We chose different paths.

But why can't I just feel joy for you?
Why do I look away from your happiness,
Yet crave your presence
Like a moth to light?
It's absurd, isn't it?
And yet, it's life.

I'm a coward.
I can't make the call
That says, "Let's meet, let's talk."
It feels strange, doesn't it?
Odd to reach for someone
You haven't seen in so long.

Even our conversations feel foreign,
Awkward and hollow.
What could we even say?
The gap between us overflows
With too much to fill,
Too much to let go.

So we avoid it,
Dancing around the silence,
Pretending it's easier this way.

But I feel a pang again-
A sharp, bitter ache
When I see you laugh with strangers,
When I watch you craft new memories
Without me.

Why didn't we make more?
Or did we make so many
That they blur together now,
A haze of what once was?

Tears spill when I see you with old friends,
When I'm not there.
Have I been left behind?
Did we truly drift so far,
In mind and in time?

Has too much time passed?
Are we still friends?
I think of you only when memory stirs,
When something brings you to the surface.
The rest of the time,
You linger in the corners of my mind.

Am I betraying you?
I no longer feel you are a part of me.
I no longer reach for you first-
To share my joys,
To celebrate my triumphs.

Yet, when I do think of you,
I ache to share,
To hear your voice again.
Do you feel the same?
Are you still the person I remember?

Do you miss me,
Even just for a moment,
When you see me laugh,
As I miss you
When your image flickers on my screen?

Are we still the same?
Or have we become strangers,
Tied only by a fraying thread of memory?

Are we still friends?

Author's Note

What do you think about the poem.
This was my first poem ever .

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I like the questions this raises. Did the waning of the friendship just happen?
Was I to blame for letting that person disappear from my life and then make it awkward on the reconnect?
I have tried hard to keep old friendships and many have now lasted for 50 to 60 years. But, they have had to be with effort on both sides...if it stays a back and forth then it will be strong and last.
I like the "flickers on my screen"---some old friends become just that.
One suggestion I have is when you post your poems, leave out the explanation of them...just let the reader relate as he or she will.
BUt there is a lot of emotion in this poem about the emotion lost when we disconnect with people.
This poem is so much better than the first poem I wrote...mine was really dorky and over-rhymey...
j.

[Inkspire]

Than you
Will follow the suggestions

[JessyJacob]

We see know God and we see him in temples for the first time when parents intriduce. We pray daily till no endingly. I think why do you question yourself ? When the other person is just you. Maybe a quivering heart poses mulitple thoughts but hearts know what they need.

Jessy Jacob.
God believes us though we may or may not believe him.
Juxtapose we both in God's place and all queries go away never be blocks in our path for reunite.

[Manta Ray Lily]

Are you serious right now? It's soooooo f crazy man. I am just totally enjoying as well feeling sorry about the emotions portrayed in this poem. If this is your first poem, then I swear you can pull off a whole anthology of your poems. I loved it. Throughout the poem, I was just nodding in approval. Nice work!

[Inkspire]

Haha..may not be my first writing..but yes this is my first completely finished original work.

[Manta Ray Lily]

Well, it's still fine as your poetry skills 🙇‍♀️ is on another level and I mean it.