January, 2008

saw a stranger

that reminded me

of someone i had

forgotten.

i saw you yesterday,

through a window to another world

where i might have lived in some other life.

it brought me back to days when a smile

held more power than human expression

has ability to adequately convey;

like the sun penetrates morning fog

laying bare a bright day full of promise

and warmth beyond comprehension,

elusive to so many who seek after it.

you smiled and waved at someone

you don't know and have never seen before,

and a smile crept unwittingly to my face,

the kind and distant memory

tempered with the sadness that is the price

of remberance and experience.

your face was unlined,

free of the marks of care

and the weight of sorrow and trial.

a glimpse into the past and whose echoes are

felt even in the most remote places of the present.

i saw in clarity the person i loved,

defiant of the passing of time and life,

boldly drawn and indelibly etched into memory.

even though it was mere reflection

of things that i have seen before,

it awakened images that have slept

eternities in my mind.

it reminded me why i keep trying,

and served as momento of hope,

of things long forgotten,

slumbering in dark corners.

"All because of you,

I believe in angels.

Not the kind with wings,

No, not the kind with halos.

The kind that bring you home

When home becomes a strange place."

and even though

i am unable to follow your voice,

i can still hear its echoes

in the back of my heart and mind,

faint but still as bold as ever.

i saw you today

in a place where you've never been

through a window to a lost world

that still spins on somewhere in time.

and the stranger walked on,

the bus drove by,

but i remembered;

witness to things

that never happened

in a place that only exists

in the distance of memory.

-colin out-