Category: poetry

There are people all around you hugging, laughing, crying, and sharing all the memories. The only thing you can think about is not your friends because you know you’ll see them again, but the person standing a few feet in front of you. A tear runs down your cheek when a tear falls from theirs. You both open your arms. You walk toward their open arms. You’re thinking about all those times you had together and how they’re coming to an end. You hold on a little too tightly. You never want to let go, but at one point you must.
They tell you to keep in touch. “I will,” you mumble. They’re about to say something, but before they can get out their true feelings, your friends run up and pull you away saying something about a party. As you’re being dragged away, you look back, seeing that person just stand there with another tear falling.
An hour later, you’re in the backseat of your parent’s car. You look out the back window to see him running out the building, waving. You wave back knowing this moment will probably be the last time you will ever see him. You wave until he’s just a speck in the distance. You turn around and take a deep breath. Another tear falls as you look out the window with the rain falling heavily and everything flashing by.
Your mother turns and looks at you. “So are you ready for school, getting out on your own and college boys?”
All you have to say is “sure.” All you can think about, though, is those past four years.
You’re going to school in the fall. They’re going across the country.
You text for a while, but you are both too busy to get together.
Five months later, you get the first call. You talk for briefly twenty minutes.
Another five months go by, you get a letter. You write back.
A year later… Nothing. Another year… Nothing.
You search social media. You can’t find anything under their name.
You’ve officially lost touch. You can’t help but wonder where in the world is that person? Who are they with? Are they thinking about you? Do they even remember you and those four years? Sure, you’ll meet new people, but nothing like that one person. You’ll never know what could have been. It’s that one person you always wanted to be in your life.
Ten years go by and it seems like that life was from a different lifetime. It seems like a thousand years ago. You’re not even sure if they’re alive or with a family. Not a day goes by you don’t think of him. You watch the news. A girl you knew from school recently died from cancer. Another two people you knew are now professional football players.
You’re driving your kids to school. You see a homeless man on the side of the road, you remember you knew them as well. You felt bad for him, but every person you see that you knew only reminds you of that one person. Another tear falls. Your baby girl in the backseat asks, “mommy, what’s wrong?”
You say, “nothing.” Then you say to your kids, “never let time pass you by. Be thankful for every moment. Never regret something or someone that once made you smile. Time is too short. You have something to say, say it!”
The little girl says, “okay mommy,” although she doesn’t quite understand.
Junior year, your baby girl is going to homecoming and prom. She reminds you of yourself in school. One day, she tells you about this new boy who is always flirting and waiting for her in the halls. She tells you she asked him out. He said “yes.” She tells you that she had to do it before he moved on. Again, you think of all those memories you had. Although you love your life now, sometimes you secretly wish you could go back and do things differently.
Of course, time flies by and now you’re sitting there watching your baby girl walk down the aisle. She’s marrying her high school love, the one she told you about junior year. You’re happy for her, you really are, but you can’t help but feel a tad bit jealous. You think of him again. Another tear falls.
If you’re lucky, when you’re old, you and that person run into each other for the first time in 40 years. Last time you saw each other was graduation day. You sit down for coffee, catch up on each other’s’ lives, tell each other the feelings you were too afraid to say in high school and fall in love all over again.
But that rarely ever happens…