Star Friends Poem by Leah Ayliffe

I walk out the door,
Leaving her,
I say goodbye.
Create distractions,
Music playing on the walk to the bus.
We do anything not to cry.

We've come full circle,
Back to who we used to be.
Except more than that,
Forward to who we were meant to become.

It had been three years
since we last shared company -
a friend whose soul is just like my own.
The runaway darlings we were once named,
Backpacks and second hand clothes
On the runaway road.

Years since those days spent travelling place to place,
Not always sure where our heads would sleep.
Dancing away the night with booze, drugs and the allure of false love,
We sometimes felt the ecstasy, sometimes desired to be numb.

Flashforward to last week, together like the time never interfered.
Everything as it was, as it were,
And yet everything has changed.

When the cloth we wove ripped its seams to go separate ways
The stars made us face different stories on our own.
I spoke words I haven't spoken in many months,
I heard tales that reflected my own thoughts.

There was laughter that had not escaped my throat so wild since who knows when,
That look that takes place between two people who simply understand.
No need to explain a sentiment more than once,
Like two sister, giddy, talking hours after their parents send them to bed.

Secrets shared,
Nostalgic memories resurfaced,
and then the past that separates us.
We reach a powerful affirmation:
Everything is as it should be.
The world is perfect just as it is.
Through all the tragedies, the heartache,
The daily evils that do take place.
The world is beautiful, the world is good.
The sphere that straddles heaven and hell must contain both angels and demons.

This angel in my life is back in Seattle to blaze a gorgeous trail for her present and future self.
I wake each day since walking out that door in wonder about what happens now.
Smiling thinking, it's all happening now.

The love meter in my heart measures full,
I think of all my angel women made of the same star that orbit my world.
When I think of them, the few and rare real friends that come to mind,
I know I have nothing in life to fear.
We've all survived our hell, heaven must be near.
Heaven must be here.