How Do You Do?

 How do you do? 

He asked me today 

As though we were strangers 

With nothing more to say… 

His face I recall - probably, 

The rest of him forgotten 

The wool over my eyes,

Now thickened with cotton. 

As close and intimate, 

In a distant memory;

Of all those heady emotions,

We now find ourselves free. 

Whoever said love is eternal, 

And affection blind; 

Have perjured themselves greatly 

Been untrue and unkind. 

Love can die as easily, 

As the rest of us. 

It can shatter and wither 

With nary a fuss. 

And so here we are, 

You and me and not ‘we’

We’ll look at each other 

Yet we won’t see. 

The damage we’ve inflicted 

The pain we’ve brought 

Havoc and chaos 

Where peace was once sought.