Best Friend: Looking Back

Anthony Hammill

April 2022

“You tell me it is too early to be looking back, 

but that is because you have forgotten the perfect simplicity 

of being one and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.”

-Billy Collins

Remember when we trekked across the creaking snow?

Talked about how the snow looked pretty, you know?

Or when we’d build a snowman with a lopsided nose.

With the distant, resonant sound of a child’s laugh.

And we’d talk about prospects for our lives

You wanna be single? Or kids and a wife?

I’d like to think our dreams shined like stars

How they’d be the spotlight on our uneasy smiles.

Remember when we watched planes soar across

this enormous sky, clouds looking seemingly lost?

When we felt the crunch underfoot of winter frost,

then spring flowers would’ve made a pillow for us.

Where you looked at my frozen eyes

Told me you were gonna be a scientist

I told you that’s great, but in reality

I was hiding a selfish loss inside me

When you come back from university

Tell me about your day, like in high school

But all this time, I hope you’ve recognized

the treason of declaring the initial “Goodbye.”