Parallel Lives Poem by valerie Hartland

You're not that little girl I cared for anymore
not the child who didn't speak my language and didn't understand
grown and changed you call the law against me when I fail you
and miss the boundary line
for sure you have proved that you no longer need
me to hold your hand

A grown woman now an entrepreneur
who will dump me at her will
But would you know..could you accept
I also am not the girl you knew,
the child that you still thought I was
Life to me also has not been kind
I did not become the grown up version
of the girlhood friend you left behind

Like playground roundabouts that children ride
I grew up but came full circle
to the place I thought I had left behind
Though wait! ! ! .. There are childhood games that I still play
make believe, lets pretend and peek a boo I want to hide
I would promise I will not pretend a life you would not find
will not hurt and hide, will not reject
my image to protect
for in a grown up hide and seek
who knows what we might find?
A treasure store
behind the door of the childhood we left behind

Turned into two women who know each other better than a sister
for you know me better than any other
When reflected in a mirror, I see the lie
Mirror, mirror on the wall..who is the fairest one of all
I smile to halt my cry.
And one night I held a mirror to your face
wishing you could see yourself with all the grace
With which I see you my childhood friend when looked at from my place


Fifty three years we lived in parallel
We know more than any other, that life has been a living hell
Why do we..are we wise? To throw it all away
we could walk side by side until the day we die
speaking the same language now, we can each understand
there are things that we can never share
no matter how we love and care.

For you have fame
and will be heard if in anger, to the law you raise my name
and I have nothing, no means of defence
only poverty and shame, no value then to my pretence
like chidren on a see saw, I rose up and you were down
and just like that see saw now it is the other way around

But we have walked in parallel,
diverged, divided
might we meet again, converge
understanding more even than a mother
to be a friend without the need to smother
letting loose the tie
loving yet while knowing,
we need to let the other choose their path..and fly