Monday, April 23, 2007 ;
10:04:00 AM
DisappearedIt happens that friends drop out of your life;
each year a face, a voice, lost, quietly gone
into a far country, each finding a way to survive.
You wonder about the few, whether they are alive,
the ones who matter, the maimed, the forlorn.
It happens that the angels slip unnoticed out of your life.
You dig up the letters and cards to revive
the smile, the touch of a hand, the lone
moment together, finding a way that will survive
the distance. Then you count the years, five,
ten, the absences, test the defunct number, the wrong
address, the silence of the ones who drop out of your life.
You replay the scenes of love and strife,
remember the shared books, the loved song,
the souvenirs of friendship that will survive
the vanishing. You know the memory can thrive
on loss, and give them the lives you long to share,
the news of the dear ones who have dropped out of your life.
Yet you wonder, wonder, whether any of these will survive.
Boey Kim Cheng
After the Fire
every day is a new day ♥
