A New Beginning

Echo rewind

Hesitant, even with twenty-first century technology,
Broken, cracked wide, a thousand miles in
An echo repeat from thirty seconds ago
To throw us, confuse conversation,
Muddle our heads more than they already are.

An echo repeat from thirty years ago
When we, by chance, were thrown
Into the same curry house, embarrassed
White left handed eating forbidden, squeezed
Laughing against formica tables, battered chairs.

An echo repeat from three months ago,
Another curry and you were there again,
You threw and I caught the low skimming
Stone of past pained mess and mayhem,
Held it tight, safe for both of us.

We didn't forget all those hours and days and years
But mortared them together into a new structure,
Shelter against the past, windows out to the horizon.

You would have thought by now
We’d be grown up and sensible,
Mature and unemotional.

But we’re not.

Now it is
Your voice that calms me, calls to me,
It wraps its tendril arms round me and holds me safe,
You listen and I can breathe,
I listen and you open,
a flower's petals creak apart,
Reach out to the light,
Have faith in the worn latticed trellis,
The interweaving of wires that hold us,
Trust me; let me trust you.