If I'd met you sooner,
I would have been stronger.
With a reason, a lover,
It would have been so much easier
To soldier on.
You were the light at the end
Of the tunnel,
But I was blind-
If I'd seen it any sooner,
I know
That I never would have given up.
Why didn't I see it before?
Now that I look back,
Those years were squandered in vain-
My sadness laid waste to my spirit,
And my spirit abandoned my soul.
What for, I wonder?
If a captain abandons his ship,
He remains a captain,
Just of a ship that has sunk.
Hindsight declares the obvious:
Fighting to the death
Would've been a better way to die
Than fleeing like a rat
Confronted with a trap.
Yes, I survived-
But at what cost?
I was too weak to love you,
Too intent on surviving
That I forgot how to live.
That merciless hindsight heckles me-
Whatever I was clinging to
Ruined me,
And thus has ruined whatever hope
I had of being loved
By you.
YOU ARE READING
Refraction.
PoetrySo many aspects, colours and themes make up our experiences. Truly, is anything entirely good or entirely bad? Upon weighing up the positives and negatives of the past, do we not admit that even tragedy is- in a twisted sort of way- advantageous? O...
