I left you

my friend

I left you,

when drunken,

uncomprehendingly

disdainfully, shamefacedly

(isn’t that we were taught to feel)

I turned away

my friend.

 

Was I drunk? Were you?

Was it an accident

we cannot recover from?

Those questions

haunt us tonight

as I wait in this cell

I have been condemned

to inhabit

since I heard about your death.

 

I left you my friend

I left you all alone

whilst you partied

free of parental control

I turned away, my friend.

I should have screamed.

Would you?

would you have, did you?

you were but a child.

 

Those questions

haunt us tonight.

every parent every mother

waxing eloquent in daylight

whilst at night this cell

this cell I must inhabit

closes around me

the cell I earned

since I heard about your death.