I have recognized the faces of the strangers from my past,
In the faces of all the strangers I have passed.
As I have walked down the road today, stood on the tram, sat in a restaurant, I have seen flashes of faces of people I recognize in complete strangers. These are faces that I know, but not people I was ever close to. I look back quickly, dazed, but the face is gone. I can neither place it or – all the sudden – remember it.
The feeling is almost like that of déjà vu, but with a terrible sense of loss. The faces of people I will never know keep revealing the faces of people I have failed to know. Yet I cannot even begin to remember why I remember the face. Like with déjà vu you immediately know you have done this before, and are overwhelmed by the thought and feeling that you know exactly when it has happened before; yet you cannot name this time. Was it five years ago? Last month? In college? It’s gone before you know – or you never knew to begin with. Yet you know that you once knew.
I too know that I once knew these faces. Yet they are gone before I can place them. Their time-frame is lost in a confusion of nothingness. I try to grab it quickly, but my hand plunges quickly into a darkened well with nothing solid to bring back. Only the dripping tears of loss from my tightly clenched fist.