[poetry] The Diary

((Another emotional poem. This one was for a friend who was going overseas to study.

Notice the rhyming couplet at the end.

Note too the almost-equal metre for each line. I never managed to get that right.))

Turning the pages of a long forgotten diary,
Re-painting in my mind memories lost and broken.
Stopping at a fresh page, blank and empty,
I pick up my pen to craft a story unspoken.

How many summers since we first met?
How many winters has your smile warmed?
Each moment together, happy and sad, sunny and wet,
Kept chronicled in this book, the memories we've formed.

But flowers were meant to wilt someday,
And snowflakes meant to melt.
Just as birds in winger fly away,
You weren't meant to stay.

If the ending were mine to say,
I would cling to you and never let go.
But who are we but characters of a play,
On stage, waiting for events to unfold.

I end my entry with a trembling hand,
And close the diary upon tear-smudged ink.
Here is where our story ends;
Words fail me as I raise my hand and think:

"Farewell, fair friend, it is not as bad as it seems;
We will meet again in the fabled land of dreams."