Unsteady Mirror

 I stare into that mirror and I'm haunted by what stares aback at me.

When did this become who I think I am?

Where is that ambitious miscreant who once thought the world would be their plaything? When life seemed but a blank page to write my own narrative upon?

These grey hairs stand out, more and more coming as each week continues on.

Where did these creases and wrinkles come from? Where has the time gone to pass me into this aged facade of what I once believed? How can that much time have passed?

I remember those days sitting at Cafe Reggio, unnecessarily long hair flipping flippantly with the southern gusts of the Village as I read Kant and drank cappuccini. I remember the scents of halal food trucks wafting through the late afternoons and scribbling n those notebooks I always carried.

I can't remember the last time I carried one of my Moleskines.

My eyes look tired. Bags and lines beneath each that I can't recall. I have to squint to see details now.

Beauty was never a concept I considered. But truth, love, justice, freedom, creativity... 

the tenants of all I ever had faith in.

When did I lose track of them? 

How long has it been since I believed in what I believe?

The hours spent in diatribe with collaborative camaraderie seem like such a distant memory. Days spent in discourse, nights spent in debauchery and all the while the story and narrative was always there. The north star to my starless seascape. I always believed in that guiding force.

When was the last time I sat down at my typewriter? A year, two? Do my fingers even remember how to do this?

I try to find my voice but it is drowned out by the maelstrom of the events of life. I look to those guiding stars and yet I can see nothing but a nebulous haze. Is this the true sinking of the ship I have held onto for so long?

My reflection stares back at me, a sense of sadness and complacency in his eyes. He looks to me as if to say this truth is not absolute. Broken doesn't fit well.

I stare back in defiance. I refuse to settle. Life is a beautiful story that never ends. The only time the chapter comes to a close is when we give up on the narrative.

It is never too late.

It is always the right time.

It is now.

It is.

Periphery

 "You've gotten older," she says with a wry grin, those emerald eyes averting momentarily as she always did when she was being coy.

"Time keeps passing no matter how much we deny it, my dear." I cock my head like I always do when I'm trying to find the right words. And I can never find the right words.

"Always relying on philosophic roundabouts."

"Well, some things never truly change." We exchange a smile, a moment that flashes back to decades before when we were young and there was just that moment. She dips her head, averts her eyes again and takes a sip of her drink. She looks around, searching for landmarks that are familiar to our time together but that time has long since passed...

...

"You two are just adorable! I need a photo of this moment!"

That random friend, just met and strangely now part of our circle heckles me for squinting and grinning instead of a smile. She chastises me and you tell her that my idiot crocodile smirk is a sign of me being happy. Not many recognize that one. We lean together, the backdrop of our eccentric neighborhood and home right behind us. The flash glares off the mojito glasses in front of us but I don't say a word. We enjoy the tapas from our local spot and the night just drifts into those memories so perfect and serene you struggle to remember the details...

... I still regret not having that photo, despite how things turned out...

... 

"Hey old friend, it's been a while." I never expect your calls anymore. So many miles and eons have passed between us that I don't know if we still matter anymore.

"Yeah, I guess it has been. Are you..."

"How are..."

"How's your family?"

"How's you're... ah yeah they're fine."

"Yeah, me too." I don't know what else to say, sitting alone a lifetime away from you.

...

...

"Can I help you pack anything," I ask, clearly lacking enthusiasm. I'm on that tiny little green couch that had been such a source of comfort for years. Pizzeria and red wine-sangria and the gandalf pipe and old shows that just made every moment last as long as it was needed.

"No, I'm fine."

...

I still remember sitting at Cafe Reggio, reading Baudelaire and drinking my espresso when you come up the street from class, fired up about linguistics and looking like the beatific artistic saint with your handbag and your torn-up Bowie shirt. You sit down and just unleash your mind while subtly ordering a drink. I light a Dunhill and smirk as you bombard with passion. The growing autumn twilight doesn't drive us away at.

...

"I don't know what to say." We're at the security checkpoint at the airport, your bags already checked. Theres almost no one in the international terminal at this hour. You always have a knack for the untimed.

"Thanks for coming with me." You look hard at me but I can't keep the eye contact. I know something meaningful and important is about to end. You place over your shoulder at the digital terminal clock and then slowly turn back to me. You keep your eyes down to match my downtrodden visage. "I'm gonna miss you." You wait for me to react.

"Yeah, you too," I say, reticently raising my chin to match your gaze. You flash a pirate smile, the one I know all too well and you softly nod your head. You check on your bag and then turn back to me. There are a million words whispered in a moment without a sound being made. You smile again and you throw your arms around my neck. I match the act and that moment freezes.

A slight tear slides down your cheek and you smile again, steeling yourself. You grab your bag and turn and head off towards the terminal. I stand and wait and watch for longer than I can remember, my mind silent and my senses numbed. You slowly disappear from sight...

...

...

"Do you remember that random pizza place we used to get from for Futurama nights?"

I choke on my drink, laughing on my doorstep as your voice pierces my ears.

"How could I forget."

"They never remembered the toppings." Your laugh in my ears sparks synapses of a lifetime ago but I know they are closed doors. It's just nice hearing my friend laugh again.

"Talk to you soon," I ask after a while. My drink is empty and the haze over city stars is starting to clear meaning dawn is coming.

"Always." 

And the line goes dead, and I am left with those sounds of a city neighborhood. The barreling glow of the corner street lamp feels like a lighthouse of oppression in a moment and a lifetime of an instant.

I wake up that first moment you are gone.

The lamppost is a lighthouse in the anguish.

Constellations

 I think about that morning a lot.

The slowly ascending crescendo of the basic sounds of life.

And yet those moments were everything.

The gulls and gills of Charlestown sung loud while we just lounged and

lived.

Breathed.

Were.

You scream at me as you put your last few items in your bag.

"You're just too much," you say, your body trembling but your eyes resolute.

"I love you," you say after the long, discomforting pause. "But I can't stand you anymore."

I watch as you pass through the gate to my building. I know this is it:  you'll move on to whatever the fates decide but I know that our paths will not cross again. I take a seat on the sidewalk, hoping to see starts in LA  but I'm left with a myriad void,

I look at the curtains, downed to block out the light, thinking of when we put them up. So much had happened before we thought it might be prudent to shut them out. Remember the nudist couple across the the street?

I'm waiting in my car, parked in front of a generational home. But I can't imagine being anywhere else at this moment. You come out through the driveway and the security lights turn on. I see a wry grin creep lethargically across you visage. 

'I see you,' is all I hear. The world softens for that moment.

"You snore a lot," you say with a noticeable sense of amusement as I crack the lids to the day.

I'm pretty sure I grumbled, and you just smiled and came closer.

I watch you pack and I am broken.

"Hey, I live down the hall. Just wanted to say hi."

I stare straight up into the sky. I seek no constellation.