To the Friends--

To the friend I think of

Each time my brother strums his guitar,

I’m pulled back to 2016,

When you sang “Green Eyes” in your car.

You said there’s a picture we’d laugh at one day,

But then life came to a sudden delay,

And everything we knew

Fell away.

To the friend who lingers

When I open the curtains wide,

I’m drawn to the windowsill

Where lifetimes of words would collide.

If others knew me like you did,

They’d say you lied,

And wonder how someone so still

Could feel so alive.

To the friends who feel so near yet far,

I lose sleep fearing where we are.

What if time steals you from me,

And we drift apart, lost to the sea?

Life has its own cruel trick of trade,

But why must it leave me so afraid?

How do I know I won’t lose you too?

How much is enough?

What must I do?

Don’t become the friend

I think of as the friend that was.

I hope we’re “friends forever,”

Not just because—

For the promise we made

Was meant to outlast life’s tricks of trade.

~ Tanisha Jhajj