linger: hiraeth

CREATIVE FEATURE, Coming-of-Age

Written by Anna

I know that you know it’s different now

All has changed. First, you, and then me.

What held us together has long unraveled, yet

It’s too easy to recall

Nostalgia is damning. The final shield against memory’s unforgiveness.

Why else do we create distortions of what once was?

Perhaps we feel safer that way, clinging to something stale

but known.

We both know it is better this way.

We could talk, but there would be nothing to say.

And since there is nothing to say, everything is already said.

But still, this memory never fades

I wanted us to see and do what the books promised

I wanted to us to swim out, in the pond, till we finally reached the sparkling line,

The cusp of the horizon, so far out

they would think us lost forever

I wanted to make this world (this small town)

into our playground (roaming empty corners of the parking lot).

I would stand at the summit (on top of the five-foot hill)

And think that everything is ours (pretend no one else exists).

I was restless and you were dissatisfied.

Disillusioned with who you were, who I was

We know this to be unmoving now

But still, my thoughts linger

I wonder about all of it.

IMG Credits: Reddit, LabratoryDisastor07, We own no rights to this image.