Puer aeternus

I knew you for a moment,
And so I'll know you all my life,
Memories sinking into glass,
Formed solid in the haunts of youth.

A sacred morgue of happiness,
Declarations of love and friendship,
All caught on my tongue.
The gazes into the past, into your eyes,
Do not betray the potential of the present,
Whispering still of moments to come.

Yet in a stumble of mine, you tilt and smash in a thousand murmuring pieces.
And suddenly, years have passed,
And the love that I saved, whispering back to me,
Carries the tone of my own fears,
The fumbling trinkets of my solitude.

In that place, outside of time, I placed my love.
So that it could never be sullied by the flaws of men.
And in time I came to live there as well.
So that I might be spared too.

Though, as the musty air clears,
I long for imperfect silences,
Clumsy jokes and ambiguities,
Loves that evolve and friendships that challenge me.

For in truth, no friendship ends before its time. It has its time and passes.
So I cannot ever meet you again, as you were,
And if by chance I meet the person you have become,
I will meet you anew, and know you for the first time.
But otherwise, my old friend,

Farewell.