A Tainted Memory.

What’s in a laugh that echoes

in the ears of my memory’s castle?

What’s in a smile, frozen in time

and the carefree flight of our joy,

now grounded?

What’s in the stones that skipped heartbeats

Now built into walls?

And, when did the cracks appear

In my rose-tinted irises

That remembered you?

Because the world where you live,

In the back of my mind,

Is no longer unmarked and

Perhaps I was a fool to ever think it so.

Tell me,

what’s in the salt of tears

but bitterness and regret?

And, what’s in a heartdrop shared

but the cold blanket of naivety

and misplaced trust?

Here I thought no harm would come

To my quivering open soul,

Having handed you a delicate feather

from its injured wing.

But I was blind as I searched your eyes

For a curious innocence,

And perhaps allowing myself to see it,

In place of the ignorant cold that lay there.