I returned to find pieces of myself
embedded in the memories
of a canvas I walked away from years before.
There were some new brush strokes
and here and there the surface
bore the trample marks of time
but underneath nothing much had changed.
Instead I looked through older eyes
at a landscape remembered from my younger days
and I knew that I was different.
We were both three years older,
but where we had four years grown together
we had since grown three apart.
Now in the off-set present
I looked through the idyllic lens
of memory and I still can't tell for looking
Where the differences in me lie.
So hold me as I turn my gaze
up to the glaring glory of the tropic sky
and ponder what the future years will bring.
Will I change in the minds of distant friends
as I myself find change through experiences sent
my way to test and strengthen the fibre of my heart?
Is this the case? Or must I wonder whether
the memories of past mistakes will smoulder
in the place of my current
life? Peering backwards through the haze
I don't think my words to you were lies
but there are some I wish could be re-arranged.
My spoken words I cannot re-align
so I will think only of your graceful face
on an evening when, wrapped in midnight cloaks,
we talked the night away beside the shore.
It's a pleasant reminiscence but time won't freeze,
so I'll put this well-thumbed memory back upon the shelf.