The thing is...

Original title: The thing is...
Original date of publication: November 3, 2007*

The thing is, it should have been easier.
Trading empathy for understanding
Understanding for reproach
And reproach for indifference set into motion under the influence
Faded into the background one autumn night.
Volumes of writings, it turns out, can't be set aside
Can't be bonfired away, even when you make me too mad to even tolerate.
Sooner or later, a window opens. Through it, a woman catches a glimpse of a figure
Moving in a crowd. Adapting, shifting, moving forward into the future. His future.
Someone's future, anyway.

My friend, there was no indifference.

Reproach, all right, and a lack of understanding
Of what in the world had happened
Of where one can go so wrong.

She thought of you often, however.
With fondness and with anger
And with hope that you'd put your head on straight.
There are times when we pull the blame all over and around ourselves
Like the blankets on a January morning, and times
When we just cannot get far enough away.
If you ever wondered why…?
If every headline is a love note
And ever letter to the editor an exercise in candor
No need remains to be in any way dishonest.

*As to when exactly I wrote it, I couldn't tell you.