When People You Know Become People You Knew Poem by James Cheek

When people you know become people you knew,
it's quite sad, friend, this much is true;

People you cared for, loved ones and friends,
are now faint memories, slipping out of your hands;

You used to know them better than anyone else could,
all of their favorites and leasts, what they wouldn't and would;

Now you know their names, and bigger things, but that's it,
You try to remember details, but eventually quit;

It seems hopeless to try and remember so small,
sometimes you feel close, but just can't quite recall;

You might feel many things when you again with them meet,
from regret, to failure, to longing, to defeat;

Or, perhaps, you feel nothing at all,
you were glad to cut ties, to see bridges burn, and fall;

Regardless of what you feel, if you feel anything,
whether you want to or not, you keep forgetting;

Forgetting all of the times you and these people had,
first go the good, and then go the bad;

Then finally, at different times, while in your quiet bed you lay,
those people... one by one... they just fade away.