Two Were Once One

Iambic pentameter

I've known you now for forty years, and yet

you seem to lack familiarity.
I used to smile, dance a foxtrot with you -
and trip with joy and hold that friendly hand.
But where am I to find you? When, indeed?
You're still alive but sitting with no twinkle?
No love of me - the friendship we had shared?
No wrinkle in your eyes, no upward lips?

That greatest shame, now casting out what was
a thing that used to bind us - keep us close,
as part of one another's being - now
shows such an absence, such a misery.
It's now a void, the blackest chasm that
could part two people - two who once were one.


(Jan 2023)

Reviews

[Akinlolu]

Tragic. When intimacy of such length crumbles, younger ones may be afraid to venture into that territory. However, it's a risk humans will never stop taking. I found out a person's romantic relationships can become their heaven or their hell. My sympathy to everyone who.have found sorrow at the end of that road and my best wishes to everyone willing to take the risk...to love. Regards from Akinlolu.

[Red Brick Keshner]

That is quite sad when connections of such longevity and intimacy begin to cool, more when one is lacking more than the other.