My Friend – 2

This poem is about friendship and loss, and the grief which comes with it. This is the second in a series of poems exploring different facets of friendship and love that I wrote back in the early ’80s. Compare this poem to My Friend – 1 (1983), the first poem in the series.

 

Will you wait?

Ten years is all it will take

You have tested me

Time and again –

Now

It is my turn to test you.

 

Listen –

A soul is crying

Can you hear it now?

 

You have the key

To a lock

Which I cannot open –

Set me free.

 

No, don’t.

 

I am becoming

The cynical human

That you once were –

And from which fate

I tried to save you.

 

I cannot trust now

It hurts to feel –

It would be kinder

To be numb.

 

There is no kindness now.

 

The spontaneity

Of youth

Has gone out of me –

There is only an old soul

In a young body.

 

I speak –

Yours are the only ears

That can hear.

 

An empty face

An empty heart

A tired soul.

 

I need you –

Is that what you want

To hear?

I wanted to hear it

From you –

And did.

 

Listen –

Will you wait?

 

Do you promise

Not to lose

The key?

Do you promise

To remember

Which lock it is?

 

Stop –

Can you hear

A soul crying?

Listen carefully –

 

It is not mine

Nor yours –

It is ours.

 

Vanita Shukla Hork, 1983

 

If you liked this poem, you will enjoy my book Friends (Memories from another Lifetime).  Available on Amazon, free on KindleUnlimited. Please do leave a review.