Kaleidoscope

Our Folklore

The weather was fine on that day of June
The wind and all the birds' in tune
Thought the room full of strangers was an irony
Because the stranger was me

Wafting a fan in front of your face
You turned to me and smiled, unfazed
You asked for my name and told me yours
The beginning of our folklore

Secured your place as my first friend
Held it close like a promise we cannot bend
The blissful youth we cannot forget
The years of laughters and tears and regret

Remember how the class rooted for us
When we played husband and wife in Pocahontas
And that was the only time in your life you'd ever dance
Holding each other's gaze and holding hands

Each swing and sway was a pleasure
Your scent, our proximity, and the pressure
Was it the lie and denial in the spin-the-bottle
That pushed us to just leave our story in a novel?

Remember when you suddenly ignored me for days?
You made me cry and I wrote you a letter but hey
You never told me the reason why
Was it because of the other guy?

The next play rehearsal came and you wore the shirt I gifted you
Scared to dance but I looked up in your eyes and felt it too
The quiet assurance that all is fine as they always did
I sighed in relief yet we still held the affection we forbid

You loved to tease me and we blurt those playful words
Underneath were our truth that only us understood
We never talked about the feelings when we looked at each other's eyes
Feelings beneath the friendship we couldn't sacrifice

We grew up and chose our own paths
Had our hearts broken by some relationships we had
Even promised to marry each other if we're available at thirty
Funny because we'd never confess to each other, would we?

Perhaps this is how we pay the price
It is harder now to break the ice
Bury the could-have-beens of our deepest emotions
Lost in our countless chances and countless hesitations

Eighteen years fled in a blink of an eye
We still hide our truth in an utter cry
Now you hold somebody else's hand
Is this how you felt back when I had a man?

It's a riddle how we're always, always next to each other
In every friendly get together
Always talking about our love and pass it off in jest
As if that's the only way to get if off our chest

I wonder why you wouldn't introduce her to me
Are we still thinking what if we could be?
Isn't it a little unfair and a little too late
To still wonder about it after ten years and eight?

But when we hold each other's gaze like before
Comes alive the truth behind our folklore
The warmth, the fondness that exists only between us
With respect, with pure adoration of the innocence of what was