It often crosses my mind
the last time we talked
at the gate of the drive
of his parents’ house
a few doors up from mine
a brief casual chat about
the end of our schooldays
and our hopes for college
and our lives beyond.
Eighteen! How callow
we were, how unversed
in the ways of the world
so fresh and forward-looking
like schooners leaving port
onwards onto the high seas
with tailwinds filling our sails
towards destinations unknown.
I little knew then that would be
our final meeting on this earth
and we would never catch up
to reflect on how our lives
had fared for good or for ill.
We gleaned shadowy facts
about each other of course
from neighborhood gossip
but our paths were destined
to neither cross or converge
and any urge to reconnect
grew weaker as time went by.
Our parents eventually died
and their houses were sold
so we could not meet again
on our childhood’s road.
Then we ourselves grew old
until I heard from a friend
he’d had a fatal heart attack
at the age of sixty-three.
And that was the end of that
expunging forever the chance
of a cozy reminiscing chat
with his journey ending
in the inevitable shipwreck
to which all our voyages
through life are doomed.
Even now I often recall
that meeting so long ago
at the gate of the drive
of his parents’ house
two optimistic souls
ignorant of their fate.
~Ian Fletcher,
Cardiff, South Wales
Nice one Ian. Wouldn’t grammar police note that it should be, “neither cross nor converge” ?
Reminds me of my favorite Indian poem, “To the Chinese Restaurant,” Anjum Hasan, 2006
Thanks. You’re right, ‘nor’ is certainly standard but ‘or’ is possible according to Webster (it sounded OK to my ear as ‘spoken’ at least):
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nor
Anyway, I claim ‘poetic license’!