Baptised in Ink - 2. RECLAMATION

RECLAMATION

We rushed through youth

The two of us

In our headlong experimentation

With cigarettes and sex –

Not always in that order.

We built so many monuments from moments,

Certain of our immortality,

Our invincible alliance,

Never considering time’s cruel sport

Of divergences and rust.

From castle construction

In sand and clouds,

To midnight fevers,

Hands held and gave;

You were the lighthouse

Of childhood,

Intrepid explorer

Of the undergrowth,

Keeper of contraband

And blue-streaked pillow talk.

Even now that

Years have eroded

The rock face of us,

And the mapless voyage

Of life has begun to pall,

You’re a ghost
That ignores my visiting hours,

You haunt unbidden

Even as Lethe empties into my mind:

A fracturing delta of misplaced letters,

Of broken toys and birthday cards.

I’m unable to stop waging this war

Against forgetting

And letting go.

There’s no escaping you –

Co-author of my first five acts;

No avoiding

The background certainty,

A physical constant,

That I’m forever mere moments from

Waking from this sleepwalk

Into the forgotten and the lost,

Years slipping blank,

To find you

Where you sit, ready

To resume

After so long waiting

Beside the point.