Nostalgia is a Friendly Foe

Nostalgia is a friendly foe -

Sweeten the days like cold ice tea,

Pay no mind to the rotten fruit,

That has been brewing underneath.

Sifting through old photographs,

But they don't fade like they used to.

Wish I could cut the film roll in half,

Or burn down the memories that are overdue.

Ignoring the whispers that are laden with empty questions,

'Cause I have a knack for fixing broken bridges.

There's something enticing about flickering connections -

Even if it's long gone and washed away in the trenches.

There's an empty sheet, supposedly marking its closure,

I've never gotten to piece the words together.

To write what I feel doesn't paint the full picture,

It hangs onto the precarious edge of forever.

Pages of lessons unfolded after the year it ended,

The strings that we fettered?

Were just broken glasses, haphazardly glued together.

No wonder, it shattered.

Broken edges have lost their sharpness,

As I picked apart the past, it no longer cut me open.

I've stopped crying for it's over,

Nor am I smiling because it happened.

Despite all that were flawed, we had our moments,

But red flags disappeared under rose-tinted glasses.

Time passes and I've reconciled all that's been lost with the present,

No one hurts me the same, is still an ongoing lesson.