By Candlelight

how many years ago

did you walk away from me?

without a word

without a single trace.

of where you were going

and what you were looking for.

and left me standing here

without answers holding the blame.

how many years ago did you break my heart

letting me believe that I’d caused it all?

with that book in your hand

 the alchemist’s tale my only clue.

how many nights did I cry

with your name on my lips.

screaming in vain for answers

that never came.

how many tears fell upon the pages of

words written over and over and over again.

question marks the only punctuation

that could express the meaning of those words.

how many lifetimes

have you and I lived since then.

you were just a boy when we met

and now you stand here, a man.

I have lived and died

a thousand times since those days.

and once again

we are sitting here face to face.

sharing with you now

the tale of the life that is currently mine.

you craft questions and listen

with a heart that truly knows.

who I am and all that I am made of

reverently taking in each and every word.

we turn the pages of the past

that we have shared.

and read out loud the chapters

that we each lived alone.

we walk in steps that keep perfect pace

and we match each other’s stride.

like lovers who have

been together longer than they’ve been alone.

in the darkness as the candles burn

the stories unfold from you.

of that time of that place

and it finally comes from your point of view.

the reasons I never fully understood

that I had been the reason you went away.

but now I understand the road you were running down

and how you have found yourself on that road again.

my friend I sit across from you now

in the glow of the candle’s light.

and you look like a dream

that I wished for long ago.

I see the years fly by as the pages

go fluttering past us.

and all those years

bring us right back together again.