A Lifetime Ago Poem by tawanda omphile plaatjie

A lifetime ago I beamed like rays of a summer afternoon sunshine,
Bringing life to the greenery, making the birds sing sweet summer melodies,
Summer all throughout the year in my heart,
Warm summer rain in my veins, side by side my deep red blood,
Joy clinging to every platelet,
The joy of love!

This morning the alarm went off,
A familiar ring to my ears,
But the sight I opened my eyes to could have been something from another lifetime,
A lifetime I knew I was a part of, but pretty much felt a stranger to.
The present!

Years had gone past and that’s the lifetime I was still living in
Living; a verb
Verb: a doing word
Doing living, but hardly living
Everything in this present lifetime part of my verb,
Everyone familiar yet strangers,
Seeing each one for the first time.

In the mirror someone looks right back at me
She has my eyes and looks just like me,
But her eyes burn with anger
Pain fills them
The complete opposite of me,
Or me as I know me
Hot tears sting my eyes
I start to ask, who are you?
Have we met before?

And then like cleansing waters, with each tear it all clears out,
How the years have flown by.
While lost in a trance of a broken heart, the world kept going,
Lost in a world of heartache and depression I went on in a trance
The funny thing is my body went on too, without my spirit it turns out.
My spirit stayed with you, my heart wouldn’t let you go,
Letting go would have meant splitting it into two,
How do you go on incomplete?
With just half a heart

Where did the summer go?
How many summers went past?
My blood now runs parallel a hollow vein,
Cold as the Alaska winters
No more summer afternoon sunshine
That was a lifetime ago!

02/ July/ 2011