You Used to Be My Closest Friends

They used to be my closest friends;
I saw them often.
They elude me mostly now, though—
Sometimes I spot one off to one side
In my reverie,
My pen sometimes snags one as it flits through my underthoughts
Like a firefly in a dark field,
Teasing and glowing
When it’s pushed up by some curious feeling or shift,
Suddenly—simply—
There!

What wild horses could not drag into view
Is simply there (where?)
Then gone (why?).

Who are you? What are you?
Unseen images, phantom forms so gossamer fleeting,
Yet tantalizing, fascinating, curious to behold?
And why do you beckon your novitiate so seldom with arcane rite
To your society so little late?
Your secret siren sound so seldom late?

You used to be my closest friends--

You used to be my closest friends!
We played together, stayed together, you and I—
We loved each other, teased each other--
Day and night we pleased each other—
Constant companions, you and I, inseparable comrades!

And I knew you well, Shadowface, and you, Lightform,
Sighsong, Laughtear, Pixiedust. Where is Mister Blue, I wonder?
And who killed Cock Robin?—WHO GOES THERE?

Be ye Friend or foe? Who ye be I’d like to know.
And where oh where oh where did ye go?
Why did you leave so suddenly, my Friendfoe? Without a word, without a sign—
No smile, no tear, no warning at all.
Did you all leave together? I wonder.
It seemed so. Such sudden exodus, such haste!
And wherever did you go? Say no, no. These tears beg to know—Ah!
But I see something, I do believe—
Ah, ha-ha, ho-ho—

Sly things! You were only hiding from me!
All these years just watching me,
Never far, and watching,
Watching—over me,
Guardians—over me.

Why?
I believe I know:
You were waiting for me!
Waiting, hesitating, so polite and not wishing to impose, intrude—
Aren’t you the little Miss Manners though!
I never knew.

Well here I am! Welcome, welcome, shy friends!
Come out, come out, wherever you are,
Come out, my friends, be ye near or far,
Come all, come round, we can play once more!
Be friends anew, as friends afore.
You need not fear, I will not tell
One soul indeed (I didn’t before).

I missed you. Missed you all since you left,
Left me in a world of ideas without feeling,
Facts without love—mechanistic toys—
Plastic supergirls, boisterous superboys—

Please come back, draw nigh again—
I’ll own you all and hide no more.
I promise, I will hide no more.