Temptations echo
as Tupac ruminates
on clandestine longing.
My eyes listing
across your profile’s face.

Our departure long formed,
an ocean of years between us.
The first drop spilling
a premature end
to a former friend.

On your face I see
your successes, exciting and contemporary;
and my heart outlines a jealous love.

In youth’s eyes
you were unappreciated,
beauty squandered,
by teenage anxiety.

Your soul’s window, deep chestnut,
Wide saucers holding your dark chocolate gaze.
Elegant,
unspoiled by inherited anguish.
Familial turbulence buried under a brave face.

My eyes recall portraits of false smiles,
of dejected joy.
All fine. All okay.
Your private realities obscure
to your pleasant surface.

Though the façade soon fell,
shuddering under falsities weight.
You tore from friends,
old and new.
Your sole companion
your future child’s father.

On the banks of time’s sea
we see ne’er sight
of one another.
But digitally I see your truth.
The face you present to the world:
Of happiness blossoming,
in family’s warm glove.

From my minds history,
I recall weak hope,
bittersweet façades constructed,
upon blissful ignorance.
Wishing for an unknown
made whole.

Weeks have passed, and
I’m listening to Jhené Aiko,
wading across your profile.
A second baby.
The arrival, confirmed
through typed elation.

Perhaps all isn’t infinite,
a continuum
of all past
to be repeated.

You seem full, serene
basking in a sweetened glow
glazed through adolescence’s fire.
You appear tougher,
enjoying the taste
of success and love.

Many winds of time have passed
whispering years of silence;
and so silently I write to you.
My heart outlining a contented loss.