Michael J. Solender
Cranbrook Lane
Cranbrook Lane crossed my path today.
It wound in a lazy S, unadorned in normalcy.
Tidy lawns pretended not to know me from before.
Was I so different then?
Those summer days when shadows cast with dull edges.
When fog veiled the clearest morning.
When hollow void pulled with ferocity.
When joy and longing did not summon the courage to come.
When the depth was incalculable.
Cranbrook Lane appeared on my horizon.
One who loved me brought me there.
There where fractured sun knifed through with purpose.
Where vision focused on what was to be and abandoned what I could not change.
Where the tenacious fight was fought.
I am so different now...
Cranbrook Lane. Street of my past. Take me to my next.
Familiar I appear to her now.
It was who I was that she forgot.
I remember. I want to remember.
I'll not go back.