There's an old short poem that has been, to me, an enigma for years.
Last night I saw upon the stair A little man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today Oh, how I wish he’d go away...
The poem itself is a bit longer, but not much, and has the same message to it, but for many years, I would come back to it and wonder about the man who wasn't there.
Who is this man?
The other night, I believed I stumbled upon the answer. Of course, it being poetry, it's open to interpretation, but for all this time, I couldn't even venture a guess.
Until now.
It started with seeing a particular hashtag trending, and I thought it was a cool one. It was kind of like these types of hashtags:
It was something like that, but not quite, but it was something that I could do a number of tweets with that hashtag.
Instead, I thought it would be better as a poem, or a letter, if you will, and I thought it would be addressed differently.
So I began writing, addressing it to my old friend, and halfway through, I came to the realization that my old friend is the same little man seen on the stair.
And wow! It was just so cool to finally have an idea as to who is the man who wasn't there. And again, being poetry, it's open to interpretation, but it just felt so good to get this interpretation after so many years.
So here's the poem/letter to my old friend
I wonder if you'll know of whom I speak, or at least have some interpretation as you see it.
Hello my old friend,
It’s been a long time since you’ve looked my way
Perhaps you’ve been staring the whole time
You know I couldn’t give you a glance, although many times I wanted to/
I know you’ve been there, waiting for me
And you know I’ve waited for you
And I wondered who would make the first move/
There were times thoughts of you would flood my mind
And how it felt to be in your arms when the tears would flow,
Your embrace, warm, a fire that could consume me
I had to pull away, I had to let go/
But the more I push, the more you stay
And only when I’m in the arms of another do you go away/
But never far do you go, because you and I both know/
You’ll always be there