of Beauty in the Fading

Stream of thought.. really.

Pale and lightly worn in a way that catches one's eye

a painting hanging somewhere easily overlooked,

or a faded photograph

with the fading smile of a person that you used to know

 but lost somewhere along the way

has got half of itself outside the frame you once 

took such great care in choosing 

and I'm not sure here if it's even a battle

or if there is, if someone 

even is losing at all

But it's one of those things I meant 

when I asked you if you could remember what you'd forgotten

as we've wandered on in life 

 if for every long lost lover

and for every regret you picked up along the way

Could you to make me a promise, or at least something more than

finding yourself staring at a memory as it's fading

standing there,

 wondering what to say

what it meant to you then 

and what it means to you today

I want you to tell me you'll make sure

you're not throwing it away 

this something you have smiled about

when it came to mind, 

.. and hey, even if you weren't actually smiling 

but standing there crying 

wondering why sorrow feels that way

Just promise to make sure that you won't let go of something 

that took you one step from then to where you are now

.. it's a point of reference and a memory from back when

we still were young, and searching for the where and the how 

.. perhaps the best way is to say we were searching for answers

to every question we could think of along the way 

everyone we couldn't find, but we knew they had to be there

somehow and somewhere 

.. and that we'd get to them someday.

Hey, do you remember that year in South America we had, 

back when we were a girl and young man,

.. what can we have been, 21 sounds about right

  back when what we have made ourselves into now

had a good seven years to go before it would arrive,

Back when we still hadn't lost that hunger inside 

and still carried around a lot of borrowed sorrow

in the form of futures and all those doubts it always has comin' round

about all these futures we were trying to understand

walking down Bolivian mountainroads wearing the faded light

of a dawnbreak sunrise waiting to come alive

that silver horizon grey glow, it gives you away 

dear little starlight, we saw you hold your head high

as you came to tell Lady Midnight it's time for leaving 

but both of you two showed your soul 

whenever you tried to smile

 but in a way it was the rare sort of sorrow and longing

that makes you smile instead of cry 

.. that picture, frayed and torn and all-beyond relief,

I think it's from somewhere around there

and that faded out person standing next to a smiling person looking a little weird with her hair in the way of her face like that .. 

 I..  I believe that's the day when they told us my father had passed away back home 

And if you look closely.. I think the letter is there, in your hand, instead of thrown into the sea or burned ashes spread to the wind hoping it'd leave 

and take with it that sorrow and longing and pain

Yeah, you said if I remember verbatim you told me you thought

 it would be better to have a sad memory to carry

than to forget where your sorrows came from

ainstead of having them there just the same..

  .. and wondering why

and for how long.

That's all I have. 

I love you, little starlight..

.. now, please, forgive me for this but .. 

 I've forgotten your name, somehow.

I'm glad I had this sorrow to not have lost you completely, 

 .. right?

 

Reviews

[Abderrahmane Dakir]

Thank you for sharing this awesome poem. I really enjoy with it.