flicker and fade

You’re everywhere I look—

I can’t escape the photos we took.

This haunting obsession

I thought had passed returns,

sharp—

sudden,

like a looking glass.

We were happier then—

and now I slip past,

tiptoe around you—

Like shadows in the woods with nothing to claim,

As we spin and laugh through layers of pain.

Too young to be rushing,

too old to waste time—

We were happier then—

though now I find

I don’t quite like this state of mind.

To have was to hold you—

my secret wish.

Now all I can do is miss.

The sun still shines so bright on you—

my soul blistered and wilted

in the heat of its shrine.