Worthy Dares

Inseparable in
those younger days,
we'd skip on our 
friends opting instead
for worthy dares, 
each one ending with
a mutual offering 
of in-each-other's-face 
warrior roars, your 
fiery red double pony 
tails whipping mightily. 
 
We feared nothing
then.
 
A family relocate, you
were suddenly displaced
by a vacant space—and 
a vow to send me 
your new address, but
I gave-up on the mailbox 
as memories slowly
vanished into a vaporized
mirage. 
 
Thirty years gone,
on another continent,  
from the window of an
espresso house I saw
you—squeezing through
a hustling crowd 
along the promenade, 
every freckle still in
its place.
 
Passing by me a
brief recognition and 
then uncertainty,
the distance between too
many years, your eyes 
shifting straight ahead, the 
retracted offer of a
lover's smile.
 
I never guessed you'd
return to the cafe, just to
be sure. Yet, there you 
stood staring at the phone
I'd left on the table—then
looking at me looking
at you from outside the
window.

A spontaneous eruption
into our warrior's roar.

So many startled faces.