one moment... and another

Photo by Alex Saunderson

in a metaphysical moment

in a breath of vibrant solitude

in the half-light of a dying dream

where i slept with open eyes

you touched my face, so tenderly

and the dream slipped from inside me

and i walked into the arms of memory

with the uncertainty of a somnambulist

i took the tarnished silver box you offered

filled with old black and whites

moments imprisoned and yellowed by time

there were no digitals back in the day

remember?

and i went through the box

photo by photo

but there was one photo

of you and me

old and bent and torn about the edges

old and bent and brittle with age

but softened by the moment it caged

remember?

you were doing something funny

because you wanted to make me laugh

and i was laughing

because the laughing was good

and innocent and free

and our eyes were half-closed

in the brightness of the sun

and i don’t recall who framed us like that

but it does matter, you know

because that person saw that love

how beautifully you offered me the stars

and how heartlessly you stabbed

then stole away

and now you want to tell me how and why

but

there are always three sides to the story

yours

mine

and the one that’s real but never told

and i need i need i need… you want to say

and your eyes are daggers inside my heart

but i won’t i won’t i won’t… allow

because sometimes… sometimes… i remember you

not as my first hero on a prancing platinum steed

but as the double of you my imagination designed

crafted from the fragments remaining after your fall

but that is another story

one held in my arms

in your eyes

which shone with such brilliance

before they lost their lustre to time

a blood-stained story that haunts

the corridors of my days and nights

staining the present with what seeps

from the unforgotten wounds of the past

a story that can’t be undone

though it has tried to undo itself

a thousand million times

in the tilt of your lips to one side when you smile

in your freckles that darken when the sun is high

in your eyes that dart all over when you lie

and i thought i’d like to think you away… but

i was filling bullet-ridden castles with water

so i held that photo

in the palm of my hand

like it was a drop of holy blood

and i heard you whisper from inside its heart

this can be us again… again, you and me

and i whispered back from inside my heart

that was a moment in which i loved you