Poetry | Accepting change

Lives We Live

Saturday Poetry Prompt: postmodern love signs

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell

I loved you once. Had to, you were me. My future, the ornamental bells, and whistles that were added each year as I grew older.

Grew more sated in my beliefs — that I was becoming who I was meant to be.

But alas, I tripped and fell along the way. Did a header — face-planted into the unexpected. Into life’s little foibles, as we circle ourselves and wonder who that person really is.

I lost him in the fog. The mists of times outside my home in San Francisco. By the cracked pavement below — the space where the weeds grew out of and I slipped into, never to be seen again.

It was all very sad; the gathering of old friends. The homilies rendered for a life cut short. What a shock – even to me, as I watched the transition from the life I lived, to the one unfolding before me. Who knew?

Choices are not always made — just accepted. Ticket punched — box checked. On our way to something new.

I loved the life I thought was mine. We cuddled and kissed and made passionate gestures towards the future — our future. But it wasn’t meant to be.

We said our goodbyes. Cried. Exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. But we didn’t. Couldn’t. You can’t call yourself.

The lives we live are those that appear before us, not those left behind.

J.D. Harms Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Karen Madej Michele Thill Adelia Ritchie Jenine Bsharah Baines Amy Marley Harley King P.G. Barnett Caroline de Braganza Desiree Driesenaar Agnes Laurens The Secret Aspirant Salvatore Cagliari janny’s heart Claire Kelly Liam Ireland Stuart Englander Melissa Coffey James Knight