I’m afraid you won’t recognize me-
that we’ll be standing across from each other
on a train,
in line for groceries
or at a crosswalk and,
when our eyes meet,
there will be the nothingness
that comes from looking into the eyes of strangers.
I know that there was a time
when we knew each other
better than we knew ourselves-
a time when you could read my facial expression and know my thoughts
before they had actually occurred to me.
I’m afraid of what it means to have lost that.
I know what it means to not see you
but I don’t want to know the world
where we are somehow strangers.