ANOTHER LIFE
(jupiter-is-in-love)
I met you in another life.
You tripped on a rainy day, running to catch the bus.
I told the driver to wait as you got up - and you smiled at me while fixing your clothes.
I nodded as you thanked me. We sat in different seats.
My stop was closer than yours, but I caught another glimpse of those eyes before exiting.
Thinking I would never see them again.
Until I did, in another life.
You looked so different, so much shorter - but so was I.
I saw you more often that time. We trailed the same high school halls.
But only when you warned me that one afternoon my shoe was untied that I noticed.
I had seen those eyes before.
But I was the one saying “thank you” that time.
In another life, I couldn’t really see you.
That one was brief, but so so peaceful.
And call me crazy, but you were that other sunflower next to me, right?
I mean, I don’t think any other one of those would rather turn to me even when the sun was shining so bright in the sky.
I just wish we had more time…
But then we did, in another life.
We moved into the same street, when we were 10 or 11 in that one.
I was shy when my mom told me to talk to you; “go make friends”, she said.
But you recognized my eyes that time - yelling at me and showing off how high you could go on that swing.
Then I saw your eyes many, many times more.
We shared laughs, tears, secrets.
We grew up, we noticed - we… understood.
Those eyes - it was love they carried all along.
And then there is this life.
This lonely, lonely life.
Now I know those eyes so well - and now I look for them.
But none are quite like yours, nowhere even close.
Lost eyes, my own. Where else can I even look?
I’ve never had to squint before…
But I saw a sunflower on my way home the other night.
It was dark - and it was facing my direction, but… it wasn’t looking at me.
It looked past me, way beyond what I could see.
There is something there, far in the distance.
So I squint - and my heart yells.
Could it be?
