Remains Of A Five-Decade Old Promise

Do you remember me?
Does my name ring a bell?
I guess not...
But it doesn't really matter.
It's been such a long time-
Fifty long years since we last met,
I think I had more hair then,
And they weren't all gray too!
I walked a lot straighter;
My skin wasn't always a crumpled paper.
The weight of fifty years couldn't but take its toll-
I'm just a shadow of who I was then.

You, too, have changed a lot, you know?
Time, indeed, has consumed the 'you' I knew-
Your voice certainly was sweeter once;
The wrinkles weren't there before.
Color might have faded from your skin,
But your eyes are still the same!
You still have more life than me,
But it's me, who found the fifty years harder.
I know you've had a perfect life,
And both your sons are all grown up;
Happiness has always been your companion,
And it'd be a lie, if I said the same of me.
It's been an uphill ride throughout-
The roller-coaster never paused a bit!
My crazy mind never helped...
I've always been the one I never understood.
Heart and mind never pointed the same way,
And I remained caught in between!

I could never explain why
I walked these streets every day,
Half-hoping to find you again!
Now the streets have changed so much,
But they still carry your scent-
Unhazed by time, still as sharp as ever.
I'm not getting emotional here-
Single life has decimated that side of me you knew.
So why did I have to choose solitude?
...No, it's not because of you.
It's been just me all along!
I've always been selfish;
It's my ego that kept me all alone-
Still defying reality,
Unable to break a simple promise
That held no meaning now!

A promise made fifty-one years ago...