I’ve known her for a few years now,

but not a lifetime

The time of my friendships marked in decades

Is no more, single digits now the rule.

Thinking her different at first

Infatuation providing

all the necessary camouflage.

I plunged in disregarding the obvious signs

Time the enemy of things concealed,

permits the truth to slowly appear.

That her life, a continual series of crises,

always in search of a savior.

Desires to fill that role, predestined to fail.

The distance grows between us

connection growing fainter as silence settles in its place

Until you disappeared, a shadow consigned to the past.

Now, all these months later

As a specter appearing from the dark

You emerge again, all the feeling and desires

assailing my heart once more.

Yet I’m stronger now,

I resist the almost overpowering urge to offer her salvation,

salvation that is not within my power to give.

I can only offer my presence as comfort in its stead.

hoping that it will prove sufficient.