Forgotten Friend

Forgotten Friend
By Te’Kia Miller

I am the forgotten friend.
Even though I’ve been here
A long time, maybe

Even the longest.

Still, I am the forgotten friend.
I am the familiar face
Shuffled out of place.
Did I ever have a place?
1st, 2nd, 3rd, last place?
Did it ever matter, did I ever matter?
I am the forgotten friend.
A familiar face shuffled out of place
As easy as one cycles through shirts to wear.
Our friendship has worn old
Like torn holes in the armpits.

New faces come along, piquing curiosity
And refreshing interest like water
To an arid tongue eager to tell
What it knows. Usually close friends
Learn of that news first in the pavilion of friendship.

Busyness, while it gets the better of us at times,
Serves as a cop out after so long runs, and runs, and runs.
Days, weeks, months slipping through time
Like hourglass sand. 

I am the forgotten friend.
Even though I’ve been here
A long time, maybe

Even the longest.
Still I am the forgotten friend.

The one who is least thought about.
The one who is last to find out.
And if I don’t call you, text you, smoke signal you
…
I’d never hear from you
Except for once in a blue moon, if that.
The one who is last thought about.

The forgotten friend whose presence
Is not truly sought after.
No genuine inquiry into my wellbeing is pursued.
I am relegated to the back of conscious, existing
Only as an apparition of memory.

The forgotten friend.
No more than a passing thought to you
Who I considered precious.
We declared such a friendship… or so it seemed.
But introspection of this tattered bind
During our long departure from communication
Has revealed this stark dynamic
To the friendship we have.
I am the forgotten friend.

2022.

Matching Energy for Energy

Matching Energy for Energy 
By Te’Kia Miller 

If you don’t want to reap it, 
Then don’t sow it. 
Don’t wonder why I don’t call you. 
You don’t call me, hardly ever. 
Don’t wonder why I don’t text you. 
I can bet my last dollar you won’t answer back. 
Don’t wonder why we don’t hang out. 
You’ll suggest we meet up 
But then don’t follow up. 
Don’t wonder why I don’t share 
Big life updates and what’s new with me. 
These days I’m the last to know from you. 
I guess when someone is too busy 
They only see in blurred vision. 
Telling themselves a slurred version 
Of these events, inevitably their perception flips 
And want to grant blame in my custody. 
All I’m doing it matching energy for energy. 
Does anyone invest in one-sided anything? 
So why, then, do you expect me to invest 
In a one-sided friendship? 
Are you more special 
Than other priorities worth my time, space, and energy? 
Are you more special than 
Others who gladly invest the same 
Time, space, and energy 
To grow and maintain a friendship? 
“Too busy,” you say. 
So is everyone else. 
I’m not that friend to wait on bated breath, 
Fingers twiddling by the phone. 
I’m first chair and not second fiddle. 
You’ll cross my mind 
Like wind passing by, 
Rustling the leaves of distant memories. 
Then I shake them away like dust 
From a worn out ‘Welcome’ mat. 
And continue with living life, 
Matching energy for energy.

2022.