Laughter, paused, head thrown back, eyes half closed
The light reflecting from your eyes
This memory of a better time
When we were free and the world was ours
Where we thought time would stand still for us
Today, I found that photo
Hidden in an old envelope in a box in the spare room
Yellow at the edges, a crease in the top corner
Wedged amongst old knick knacks that were once important
Tucked out of sight and out of mind
Lost to thought, and to time, which moved on around us
The memory reclaimed, I could count the minutes and seconds
Since we went our own way
And self importantly, shrugged off anything resembling joint responsibility
It was all recrimination, the perfect cannon fodder for the suits we hired
To fight with their precious laws, our respective sides
The day when time stood still, to our eternal shame
It seems the only people happy with the falling out
Is my mother in law and the lawyers who grin
As dollar signs flash in place of their pinprick pupils
And the possessions that once were ours are now yours
But I know you're not happy, just as I am not happy
Time slipped through our fingers, slippery fish, greasy eel
Once we talked about settling our differences
But those days are long gone
It is not a sunset of oranges and reds on a far horizon
Or the signatures on the dotted line that mark this life from that
But rather, the lines on your face, the gauntness of your cheeks
The ravages of time that raced to its logical conclusion
Now, in this empty room, I merely shuffle from one room to the next
My threadbare slippers no comfort in the halls of my memories
Which slip from my grasp to shatter like a vase on the wooden floors
All I have is a photo taken from better times
And the papers that mark where our paths divided
All I do now is count the seconds until the end, where time's prisoner no more will I be
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