The "Poem" I Read the Other Day.

I read the following untitled attempt at prose the other day before an audience. It was written several years ago and is about seeing someone we thought we knew years later and realizing we probably knew them even more than we'd hoped:

Was it you?
It couldn’t have been.
It looked like you.
It couldn’t have been.
I didn’t believe it at first.
I went past you so many times,
So many times it must have looked,
Like I was stalking you.

I was shocked,
Frightened, perhaps,
Unwilling to accept what I was seeing.
WHO I was seeing.

I felt instant recognition,
Did you?
I couldn’t tell.
There seemed to be something there,
But you were so far gone,
In some world all your own.


Your eyes were filled,
With insanity.
I remembered that look,
The barest hint of,
Things to come.

I watched you,
Saddened & disgusted,
The desperation flashing like a beacon,
To your empty soul.
What were you seeking?
What did you think you needed?

What happened to you?

Was it you?
Yes, it was.
I wish it hadn’t been.
I brought what I saw back with me,
And now it won’t go away~