In Another Life

I know your mind

like the back of my hand

and can see it holding yours

like we did at age ten,

laughing joyously on the playground

as we flew through the air

and the swing approached

the point of no return.

/

We would scream with delight

to answer the roaring ocean

never caring to wonder

or addressing the notion,

that one day our lives would

send us far away,

two ships diverging

to return another day.

/

Did you think of me fondly

or maybe not at all?

A sporadic wondering,

a memory slight and small

from a past life to which

you would never return,

the past where it belongs

having no need to yearn.

/

I failed to notice

'til I was too far gone

that the dull aching told me

I was not meant to belong

where I thought I should go

when I dreamed years ago

two kids just wondering

how to move on.

/

Did you imagine another life

full of opposing choices?

The ifs, the wonders,

where you would be tomorrow night

if only you had chosen

left instead of right?

Am I there at your side,

in the quiet, in your dreams

erupting with glee

bursting life at the seams?

/

I don't know where you are

and will not quit wondering

what our life would have been

my heart knows the thundering

breath-catching, pace of just seeing you

and if it were real I might break

my imagining must do.