Deji is a very close friend who had never fallen in love with anyone. his friendship was one of a kind that people thought we were a thing, but actually, it was plain platonic. We were just two humans who enjoyed each other’s company and helped each other when the need arises. Our friendship was one that everyone suspected, but us.
Deji found love during the pandemic, and it was a beautiful thing to see. He was so drunk in love, that he even consulted me on basic things to do to make his woman happy. I was so happy for him because it was a moment I had envisaged for a long time in our friendship.
One day, Deji called me, and said, “something is wrong, but I do not know how to navigate it”. His girlfriend of six months was giving attitudes that he didn’t understand, and honestly, I didn’t understand either, but we tried to work it out anyways.
But then, the news broke out before we even tried. It was Deji’s friend who had somehow earned the love of Deji’s girlfriend, and she dumped my friend.
It was heartbreaking to see my friend down for a while. I felt so deeply heartbroken, so I started writing the poem below.
The Love that Wasn't.
I felt it, you expressed it.
Mine was real, yours was a façade.
You were a connoisseur, I was the amateur,
of the love we shared, so we began the journey,
of becoming our bone of bone, and flesh of flesh.
We spieled to whoever cared to know,
why we did and would do over and again,
in this life and the next, if there’s one.
We reverie all day, together I thought, but it was just me in that world.
You never gave an inkling that it was a futile effort I should never have started.
I suspected when you get cranky at every joke I cracked.
My words were nothing except that you find them faulty.
My smile meant nothing more than a hurt I never caused.
I asked the questions over and again,
of what went wrong or where I erred,
For I was running crazy from all the pranks you pulled.
Alas, I found the answer!
It was him.
He took you away with just what?
The answer remains a puzzle that’ll forever remain unsolved.
The dire search for why killed me countless times,
but then I concluded…
Maybe I was too naïve,
or that you hated the way we vibe,
perhaps I cared too much?
Better still, I should’ve known earlier.
But this is the acme of it.
I’m to come out unscathed,
From the bloody ocean filled with the shambles of me.
And here’s a subtle reminder
That the love I showed was quintessential,
As I wish you luck in your newly found happiness.
When I was done, I sent it to him, he smiled, and called me, then we navigated his way out of the shadow of heartbreak. It took a while for him to recover because she was his first love. He cried, ignored, sank, withdrew, but he came out just fine after a while even though it took an extra six months to get him to be himself once again, we did it still.
Time, they say, heals the roughest of heartbreaks.
This is my entry to InLeo prompt for the month of February. Find writing inspirations from the daily prompts topics. You can find the details here