Remember how you once were
the ice cream vendor
on a hot summer day?
A smile…
And then your sunken eyes
reflect the truth
the way the sea recedes
and reveals empty shells.
Aren’t you a shell?
A hardened hollow structure
of vestiges from an ambitious past,
crudely assembled by unsure hands.
The years have caught up with you
and left much behind,
littering your memories
at each familiar turn.
This young couple in a café
Now speaking, now fighting, now silent
About things that don’t matter
Disrupt the morning routine
Of the old man who sits nearby
And lets his coffee go cold
They speak the truth
When they talk about the good things
About how they must end
Sometimes prematurely
Sometimes drawn out
Sometimes stumbling and struggling
The end of their tether
Secured weakly but resilient
Vain strivings and hopes
Helping them to cling on
But maybe just once
If luck has not left you
You see resurgence
Just a hint of it
You take it and glorify it
And now the tether is stronger
If only in your mind
And then you relive the good things
Letting the charms of old memories
Bewitch you once more
But no matter how false
No matter how short lived
That feeling is one to treasure
A True Sentence 