As anyone that knows me knows, I love poetry and that I also love to write it. I don't know when this love first started, how or why, but it's been with me for a long time. The poem below is, I consider, one of the best poems I have ever written and is certainly my favourite. I have changed practically nothing since I first wrote this some 6 or so years ago. I was 14, and I wrote it because I knew the girl I had a crush on at the time was out of my league. We were too close as friends for anything further to develop, but I wished we could have been more. And out of that wish came this poem, but spread throughout is still the knowledge that we could never be. Since then my feelings have moved on, but this poem still remains my favourite. Probably due to the layer of nostalgia that covers it.
The Truth
I sit at your side as you cry,
And you sit at my side as I die.
We both know the truth,
And we both know the lies.
The truth is unbearable,
The lies make it so.
We will never know why,
And we will never understand.
No, we will never understand.
You heard the news on the radio;
I heard the news through a microphone.
You couldn't dare to bare the pain,
And I couldn't dare to not bare the pain.
We both believed only to be pushed down;
We got back up so that we could live again.
Everything we know,
Is everything we never knew.
Everything we ever wanted,
Was all we ever had.
Life is unfair, you said so yourself.
But who was there to tell you it was?
And who was it that said it wasn't so?
I guess we will never know.
Just like everything else we won't know.
I cared for all the wrong things,
And you cared for all the right.
I never knew that 'till I was told,
And you never knew until I was told.
We laughed and played until it was dark,
Never realising that it was the dark,
That caused more tears than happiness.
We shared our life together,
And now it's about to change.
You never cared for change,
And I was never bothered.
We just didn't believe enough to believe it.
I wish I could tell you how much I care,
But the words always become lost,
And I forget.
Of all the many things we both know,
We both know the truth.
And no matter how unbearable it is,
It will always be better than the lies.
And the truth is I love you,
And you love me back.
But it can never be,
For many things never are.
But how do we know?
It's simple, we don't.
And we never will because it's not for us to say,
And that's one thing we're sure of.
(C) Peter Van Werkhoven 2011
