Afrayed Us

			Our past was together,
			And there was so much misunderstanding and pain,
			Some of which is still not rectified.
			Now, it is long since,
			But every time that we embark 
			On a friendship
			It fails.
			We walk up our cords of relationship,
			And it is a little uneasy,
			But otherwise fine.
			Until, that is,
			I say something
			That forces her to look down the length of the cord
			And she turns back,
			Afraid that it is becoming as it was,
			Or even just afraid of the pain that lurks there.
			I look up and see 
			That despised and rejected end -
			Frayed and burnt,
			But still painfully detailed.
			It is both looking forwards and back -
			Looking to the future,
			Yet also back 
			Into the past which brought about the burning -
			Even though all has been forgiven,
			All has not been forgotten.

			We have tried walking down this track several times,
			But each time, thus far,
			One of us has turned back,
			Pain in our eyes once again.

			But finally,
			We may walk down together,
			And by continuing warily
			We perceive a path that branches off -
			We were never meant to travel to that ending again -
			A new way has been opened.
			So we turn off
			And travel down the new path -
			Parallel again to each other -
			But this path is not so likely
			To split at the end.