I stumbled upon my stash of Floyd last night.
“Hello, Old Friend”, I blurted out to him,
“We never got a chance to finish our conversation.”
“Strange indeed, dear boy”, he says to me, “that our paths should cross again.
For I had almost decided to give up on you
And the rest of your lot.”
The silence was a little awkward for, you must agree,
I had been caught in a tight spot.
It was a tad unnerving to hear his familiar voice
On the most desolate of nights and
When one has grown used to the silence of one’s days,
Every word seems hard fought.
Having waged a long and protracted war against them
I was quite afraid of uncomfortable questions.
About what’s and where’s and how’s and who’s
Of past and present and future and what not!
Every answer I could muster seemed laced with danger
And thus with a dejected sigh I resigned myself to the onslaught.
He saw me twitch; he must have seen me squirm,
For he lights up his pipe in that irresistibly cool fashion
(Which, by the way, always reminds me of my younger days
When love was new and battles zealously fought)
And as the toxic rings work their lethal magic, I hear his voice:
“Relax, old boy, you still need to learn to loosen the knot.”
I shuffled my feet left and right
Knowing not what the hell I had landed myself into
But, as you would know, old friends have a way
Of settling discreetly into each other’s silences
And presently I found a sense of calm descending over me
When only a moment earlier I had been so distraught!
As the night slowly ambled past us both,
In each other’s company we grew, ah, comfortably numb.
He spoke of life, while I droned on about love;
Memories from rusted, old trunks we must have dug out.
When the morning saw us become strangers once more,
We shrugged our shoulders, indifferently, like men must,
For out there, we have appearances to keep
Even when untold terrors pervade our thoughts.
And when I lost his friendly face to the hour of the dawn,
When I learnt the price I would pay for my fears,
I realised to my surprise:
He had asked no questions; not a single answer had been sought.
“Hello, Old Friend”, I blurted out to him,
“We never got a chance to finish our conversation.”
“Strange indeed, dear boy”, he says to me, “that our paths should cross again.
For I had almost decided to give up on you
And the rest of your lot.”
The silence was a little awkward for, you must agree,
I had been caught in a tight spot.
It was a tad unnerving to hear his familiar voice
On the most desolate of nights and
When one has grown used to the silence of one’s days,
Every word seems hard fought.
Having waged a long and protracted war against them
I was quite afraid of uncomfortable questions.
About what’s and where’s and how’s and who’s
Of past and present and future and what not!
Every answer I could muster seemed laced with danger
And thus with a dejected sigh I resigned myself to the onslaught.
He saw me twitch; he must have seen me squirm,
For he lights up his pipe in that irresistibly cool fashion
(Which, by the way, always reminds me of my younger days
When love was new and battles zealously fought)
And as the toxic rings work their lethal magic, I hear his voice:
“Relax, old boy, you still need to learn to loosen the knot.”
I shuffled my feet left and right
Knowing not what the hell I had landed myself into
But, as you would know, old friends have a way
Of settling discreetly into each other’s silences
And presently I found a sense of calm descending over me
When only a moment earlier I had been so distraught!
As the night slowly ambled past us both,
In each other’s company we grew, ah, comfortably numb.
He spoke of life, while I droned on about love;
Memories from rusted, old trunks we must have dug out.
When the morning saw us become strangers once more,
We shrugged our shoulders, indifferently, like men must,
For out there, we have appearances to keep
Even when untold terrors pervade our thoughts.
And when I lost his friendly face to the hour of the dawn,
When I learnt the price I would pay for my fears,
I realised to my surprise:
He had asked no questions; not a single answer had been sought.
