You have no mortal enemy , but time
Stopping by the Old School
Look around
now
where did it
all
go
yesteryear’s
laughter
last winter’s
snow?
*
doesn’t seem
real
now
but you’ve
been there
before
all so
unreal
now
once
favored
haunts
only mere
spaces
now
favored
no more
where once
you took
your chances
in surreptitious
glances
in bashful
romances
and late
midnight
dances
*
many that
betrayed
you
few that
were
true
all swept
away
now
washed
off
in rue
*
schoolyard’s
full
now
sea of
new
faces
just walked
beside
it
all the
old
places
strangers
stare back
at you
as you try
to
smile
nobody knows
you
but you
tarry
a while
coffee mug’s
tipping
full
but your
heart
is so bare
they’re where
they should
be
but why are
you
there?
*
the masters
are
new
they look
at
you oddly
as you
wave
a hand
you move
away
sadly
they
don’t
understand
*
there
walk
the lovers
still holding
hands
mocked by
the
wastrels
by the
old soda
stands
*
you walk
to
the doorway
you stop
in some
doubt
will she
come out
again
give you
a
shout
she isn’t
there
now
where did
she
go
come
away
dreamer
you’re just
fortune’s
fool
that was
long
long ago
time is
very
cruel
one that you
wished
now
you had only
said
you are the
only
one
words
left unsaid
*
hardest
of thoughts
are
about what
was
not to be
if you had
a second
chance
to
clasp
fervently
all that
is
left now
is to
grieve
silently
*
you are on
your way
out
they are
walking
past
they
the living
present
you the
shadow
past
*
once
a happy
stage
where you
frolicked
so free
now all’s
closed
to you
wiped
off the
page
*
so you look
one
last time
heave a
heavy
sigh
not one
to
hear now
your
half-lisped
goodbye
*
but as
you
walk away
you hear
yourself
say
I once had
a name
here
I once
bore a
flame
burnt me
full sore
then
burns me
still
yet
she who
won’t
remember
I who
won’t
forget
*
O wish she
would
remember
what I
cannot
forget?
[©R.Kanth 2024]
Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).