You and You

By Cliff Lake

 

You and You

 

Who will you be,

If you do not remember yourself?

Have you remade you,

To please them?

How can you know?

Time is an eraser.

Pains forgotten,

 Or left behind.

One is a choice purposed,

One is a choice unconscious.

Have you remade you?

Which of your favorites have you replaced?

Which is a past you no longer know?

What did you once love,

And now feel foolish in adoration,

Or simply embarrassed to tell?

Time is a lockbox,

That you may fear to open.

Who remade you?

Was it you?

What did you once spurn,

But now accept?

Was this of necessity,

Or surrender?

You cannot be who you were:

This is death.

But are you - you?

Have you become alien

Inside your own skin?

Is there a once-was,

Desperate to be again?

Or are you more,

Or something less

Than the you once strived for?

Or had been?

Who are you,

If you will not remember

What you were,

And what you wanted?

Time is a river,

That sets its own course,

And may carry you farther than you had wished.

Bring all of the you that you can –

A new horizon rises,

And you must meet the day.

 

Cliff Lake 3/13/2023

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2023

 

 

 

 

Location: Dalton, MA, USA

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