Blackmail

we hoped, as we groped our way

through dark souls, 

that we'd find the missing parts 

of our bodies, hoarded by strangers, 

which would complete us - 

somehow along the meandering paths, 

we discovered parts of ourselves, 

in strange people, 

we discovered they were 

chained to our younger selves, 

and as time wrung everything that was fun, 

we discovered they'd help us 

to help us rediscover our childhoods, 

and still be mature enough in the eyes 

of the world, 

we needed to whisper under blankets, 

for we are were aware of the eavesdropping world, 

time and again, 

we held our breaths, 

beholding in the sheer beauty, 

and the impossible odds that placed us right 

on each other's paths, 

and there, we began dreaming new dreams, 

as if we were curators of dreams, 

we began picturing eternities 

and the past receded, and slipped into oblivion, 

and then we weren't the same again, 

we began blackmailing each other, 

dishing out affection like smuggled goods 

suddenly we were done with each other, 

but felt stranded, 

with memories that began being bothersome 

with memories that became baggage we could bear not