Identity

I sit between my past and my present
My present I please and my past I torment
New waves crash and destroy sandcastles I built
For leaving Past behind I’ve swallowed cupfuls of guilt

I am secured in Present’s arms
My past holds a guitar and mourns
The death of the me, that belonged to him
The us that we could’ve been; hear his song begin

“Suddenly,

I'm not half the man I used to be,

There's a shadow hanging over me,

Now I long for yesterday.”

And tears from guitar strings will drip
As blood pours from rigid fingers that grip
As his painful words escape from his unwilling lips
In puddles of confusion I drown because I must‘ve slipped

Present smiles and his eyes smile at me too
Completely oblivious to my crisis; if he only knew
I’m a different person with Present; no longer the same
How can two different people share my body and my name?

I call to Future and fall to my knees, beg, and cry
“Who is the real me? What should I choose and why?”
His identity, the answer he hides behind a phantom’s mask
“Please, I am torn”; And this was his answer to the questions I ask

“If I hold a mirror up
For you to know what will be,
Like Medusa’s reflection,
it will be the last sight you’ll ever see”

I sit between worn out Past, and newly wrapped Present
Feeling Present’s reassuring kisses and hearing Past’s lament
We’ll lay here and watch grey clouds heavy with change glide by
After the storm we’ll see what new me will be left staring at the sky