Through a Gentle Lens

for Cinzita

How awkardly exquisite we were
To know, to love back then
Hopscotching landmines in
That playpen of terror
Tyrants and traumas
To what looked like life
From there.

Three lifetimes later
In some freakish measure of time
(Perhaps more mine than thine)
Through liquefaction, cavitation
We remain

The Dresden beauty,
(The wondering waif)
The fractal harlequin,
(The wandering waif)
Disparate dolls on a shared shelf

Keeping tabs, keeping track
Keeping safe
The other waif
That other self