Strangers Once Again Poem by David Whalen

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Shy glances from o’er ones shoulder
Longer looks that become bolder
Grade school crushes, Painful blushes
Turn to longing… as one grows older

Strangers still (but not for long) …

Hanging out on mid-summer night
A game of tag, A touch so slight
A mad dash away, but not too fast
Mutual wishes… for the night to last

Total strangers? (Not anymore!)

Late Moonlit night,
Bedecked in magic mist
shared pilfered cigarette
First shared stolen kiss

Strangers no more (But not quite lovers yet)

Drive-in movies, cuddlin’? Yup!
Watchin’ each other, not the screen
Makin’ moves, feelin’ grown up
Only get one time to be a teen

Strange to be apart (bereft when we are)

Quick drive out of state
Taking vows before a justice of the peace
Quick decision, (cause she’s late)
Doin’ the right thing. That’s what they think at least

Strange to be an adult. (much less a parent to be)

Entry level job, minimum wage
Diapers and tantrums, daydreams and debt
Ofttimes seem not to be on the same page
Still feelin’ the glow…and yet

Strange to be middle-aged

Kids are of an age
Where their constant condition
Seems to be only of rage
In their time of transition

Stranger still (the going downhill)

Kids gone now
Ardour slowing
Seems somehow
Less affection showing

Strange changes (in trust and in faith)

Going separate ways
More often it seems
No longer sharing
Similar dreams

Stranger still, that coldness creeps in

That the love and the trust…
wither slowly away
Weather into dust as gently
As night… turns into day

Stranger by far

From strangers to lovers
Is the life circle we close
From lovers ‘neath covers
to “what God only knows? ”

Strange indeed!

Is the course of one’s life
The path on which we wend
The curious way that husband and wife
Change and become

strangers again...

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