Connected

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You made your way into this world,
Cried your new baby tears,
Your first moment of human vulnerability.
The first person to set eyes on you
Was not your mother,
It was the nurse who helped her.
She smiled as she handed you over,
Happy to see another new life.
Where is she?

Holding your breath with sincerity,
You hide adorably under the bed,
Your friend discovers you anyway.
A pair of carefree six-year old giggles
Pierces through the playful air.
You played, you laughed, you screamed,
He was your first companion.
And now you miss the beautiful friendship,
You don't remember his last name.
He would have grown up too.

Your first heart-crushing infatuation,
The feeling of glowing eternal triumph,
After asking her out with a brave face
With that pounding heart beneath.
And subsequent earth-shattering dejection,
when she left you for another.
You'd felt she was the only one.
Another scene unfolds outside the window
The beauty and novelty dazzles you.
You smile at the past.

Feeling that pinching sense of loss,
As your co-passenger's station arrived
It had all felt so real and grounded,
While exchanging life stories emphatically.
And now as he bids you good bye
Dragging his luggage as the whistle sounds
You wonder if your paths will cross again.
He fades gradually from your sight.
Maybe you will.

Serendipity plays cute tricks of its own.
Makes you run into someone familiar,
At a predetermined random time and place.
Gleeful conversations of old times follow.
The physical differences that time conferred,
The accents and the weight gained and lost
 Forgotten in the thrill of reunion.
As the world shrinks in your mind,
You feel light.

You stumble with words of apology
As you elbow that astonishingly pretty girl,
In the maddening sea of people.
Eyes meet for a fleeting second,
She breaks the tension and goes her way.
You replay it in your own head.
Viewing it in slow motion, infusing sensation.
Moving too fast when it shouldn't,
Time is the ultimate betrayer.

As the story of our lives silently unfolds,
The characters share many moments.
Some endure through the entire play.
Others come as powerful cameos.
Juxtaposing their lives with ours
For one tacit moment,
They sing a refreshing song for us,
They teach us an unforgettable lesson,
They show us something extraordinary,
And then they leave us, forever.

But, maybe not.
Maybe, whoever we encounter in life,
For however ephemeral a moment
Remains connected to us.
With invisible, unbreakable cords
of true, untainted human relationship.
And life goes on.