#selfie #alongfortheride

I browse through the old pictures.
Clicking once,
Twice,
Three times.
Sifting through, like the poverty-stricken at a donation bank.
I search for something
To fill my needs.

We once had a sleepover.
The three of us, from day to night to day again,
until we were taken home.
Baggy shirts and comfortable jeans
Would grace your body
Like nothing else was meant
For you.

Sports ribbons, lacrosse sticks,
Dresses, North Face,
Shapely bodies, hugging boys

But you once were

Sewing ribbons, twigs and sticks,
Jeans, Goodwill stores,
No vanity in sight, hugging family

   
"
oh come on,
there's no way you guys had that many memories anyway...
just
along for the ride.
her selfies are none of your business,
why do you care what she does with her life?
she's improving; you're not, plain and simple.
          just
      along
    for
  the
ride
"



But what I am seeing,
Watching with eyes wide open:
A world that moves on without me.
I am growing,
but I do not develop.

We humans obtain friendships,
Simple links--chains, really-- to keep us from racing towards
the brink of insanity,
the ice cold edge,
and without
those things,
without our ropes,
our bondage, our binds
we
plummet
race to the
finish,
fall to the
floor like--


"
oh come on,
stop being so dramatic!
no one needs all that poetic sadness,
i mean after all, you're just
along
  for
    the
      ride.
"