Pretending to be Bukowski: A Poem Collection

5 Years

I have a pretty vision in my head
Of you and I a few years down the road.
I sit there, waiting, in a coffee shop.
You walk in, eyes scanning, soon finding mine.
You smile that same broad grin, and I smile too.
"It's been so long," someone says, and it has.
5 years, to be exact, and you sit down.
We talk about our lives, try and catch up.
I had completed 4 years of college,
You have too, and are going to med school,
Just like you had been planning for many years.

That light is still in your eyes when you speak,
A gleam I know is only for old friends.
I laugh at all your jokes and you at mine.
Time's passing has changed nothing between us.
But now we're adults, and soon we seem to know,
That something's new but still so familiar,
A feeling we knew was there but never,
Never did we act on it in our youth.
We talk for hours, planning to meet again.
Another meeting becomes another,
And it becomes a regular event.

Soon, we finally come to terms with it:
We are meant to be, we always had been.
I then fall in love all over again,
You finally fall in love with me too.
I've waited so long, all 17 years
To be exact. There's no question about us anymore.
Our destiny fulfilled after so long.
Like it should be, how it always should have
When it was spelled out when we were so young.
Storybook love becomes reality,
And we are immeasurably happy.

But that is just a silly dream of old,
A schoolgirl crush ruling over my head,
Whimsical and hopeful for what won't be.
My darling friend, I know you won't love me,
But that's okay. I shouldn't expect you to.
I want you to be happy most of all.
I want you to go and change the whole world,
Just like I always knew that you would do.
You are a galaxy of stars so bright
That I would be a fool to hold you back.
You will succeed and I'm right behind you.

I do hope we meet again someday, love.
For I still feel we're meant to be something
Something more than what we have always been.
I don't want to have a life without you,
But I will if I must, if I cannot,
If Fate has other plans for you and I.
I want you to know that I'm on your side,
That I believe in you and what you do.
You will always have the same piece of me
And I will always want you back with me.
My dear old friend, I know you will be fine.