is it gone?

when things seem to be falling apart...

what burned so brightly

now dims in the shade,

the uncertainties of youth

making clouds.

the happy pokes become

sharper jabs;

we know not our own strength

to wound.

do the thoughts of forever crumble

as the end looms closer on?

does this begin the epoch of change,

the protean element

of that now taboo word--

love.

is it gone, in pain and flames?

or is this the forming of

the chrysalis

to the butterfly of friendship?