To Know You

Today I opened your story

and saw you smiling

drink in hand

the same way you smiled 

and held drinks

when times were good;

it tells me

that wherever you are

you are the same

smiles, drinks, and pictures

as I remember -

that these memories have not yet rusted,

that this distance has not brought change.

Decades later when I open your story

will that drink be some lighter spirit?

Will that smile of yours still stay?

Will your stories be enough to know you?

Will you disappear with them each day?

Will the fact that you've grown older show me

that my own youth has since slipped away?

When I open your story then

I'll leave it open for some time.

Like in a dark room where things slowly come to focus,

memories will bring you to light gently

and I will be in that time once again

when your stories were not seen,

but heard, between shy smiles

now dissolved in time

like honey in tea

invisible, sweet - 

I will know you once again.