Crossroads

I saw a familiar face on my walk last night, like an echo that had long since faded away.  It was a curious embrace as our minds began to chase, history’s minions that brought us to this place.  Fate was the author of our crossing, and the purveyor of an unrelenting task.  Like the mystery and wonder, of a baby fallen under, the yearning to know yet knowing not what to ask.

And frozen in this time and space,
The awkward search for words of grace,
Betrayed the truth revealed by our own eyes.

And as time released her sands again,
The unwinding of the story began,
And released unwitting prisoners from their desperate disguise. 

I said, ” I’d like to say time has been your friend,
And that your smile seems to have no end,
But I sense that this is not exactly so.

Once forgotten and forsaken,
Your spirit has been shaken,
Please don’t ask me just how I’ve come to know.”

He said, “I’ve watched you walk by here before,
Every night missing you more and more,
But you just would not lend to me your eyes.

I have walked a thousand miles with you;
I’ve tasted your tears and your love so true,
And found myself in your laughter and your sighs.” 

I said, “How could it be I’ve not seen you here,
And have I grown blind to one so near?
You see I feel like I have known you all my life!

In your face I see the years gone by,
And a path that would cast our lives aside,
So we sank into this place of pain and strife.

Are you a person that I could have been?
Are there lessons I need to learn again?
And please tell me that there may still be some time!

For I fear I cannot lose you,
And believe me when I say it’s true,
To walk from here alone I can’t abide.” 

I said, “Let us stay together,
We will be so close forever,
Just think of how together we could grow!”

But light conspired with time again,
To wash my reflected life-long friend,
From the storefront window that he used to know… 

For while our lives take one direction,
What is hidden from detection,
Is revealed by a reflection when we find,

That there are lives that we’re not meant to see,
With infinite possibilities,
On this Crossroads of another place in time.