Poem: Let's Pretend

The desperate lunge to get it all back, to turn the pages in reverse and somehow find ourselves again.


Let's Pretend

Let’s pretend we never loved each other
and unwind all the windings
Let loose those filaments
we wound into a rope
Make ourselves two strangers in a bar
and find the glance we’ve lost
across another mirror

Let’s pretend tomorrow won’t be here for us
Become a one night stand,
leave clothes and memory torn off
The lost-us found again, in lust
and sweat and catching breath
Not giving a damn for promises
and knowing there are none

Let’s pretend it doesn’t hurt to look away
To follow where our eyes have gone
See the drift of focus that was us,
as we both speak softly,
in past tenses now
Becoming history, yellowed pages you and I
Gone, long gone, before our time

Let’s pretend we’ll come this way again
Start over, somehow make it work
Understand when first we touch,
how to hold without crushing,
how to balance,
without that awful grab,
as fingers slip and the last scream fades

Let’s pretend we never saw each other fall
That endless moment when only eyes ask why
and all the trust ribbons away
Did we jump, or merely lose our grip
and does it even matter?
We’re gone and all I hear
are endless, wailing echoes

Let’s pretend
Poetry Collection: Corner of My Mind
This poem is included in
Jim Freeman's
poetry collection

CORNER OF MY MIND
available here in print
or as an e-Book
in your favorite formats.