Speak with me, Friend;
Won\'t you please have a seat?
It\'s been many a day since we last did so meet.
Your face seems beyond the touch of joy
Once-glittering eyes now are void;
Skin so alive now white as a sheet.
Your shoulders are back,
Your walk is still proud,
But I see through your mask-
You just play to the crowd.
My mind races away from here-
Away so distant to the twilit past
Away so long to the memories dear
Away so far to where hopes were cast
Away so close, so short, so near. . .
Was it long ago that you smiled?
My mind does not recall-
What could overcome the doubt of this crooked mile?
What might let you now forget it all?
In your silence I ponder
These thoughts that I think
As the past, it grows fonder
And this pen continues to spit its ink.
Perhaps it will write you a grin
Or maybe bring your light back again. . .
