To The Friends Who Are No Longer In Our Lives

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Sometimes the memories are so vivid, although it was a long time ago. And at other times it feels like just yesterday, and everything seems very familiar. Maybe our paths have diverged, but the shape of the alliance that evolved remains distinct.

We always give names and shapes to things we start caring about. I think of us as a malleable iron triangle — joined at the ends, fortified with metal, never too far, and yet never too near.

When everything is in the shape of a heart or circle or something so clear, how we became a three sides, three spokes, three lives and one entity is still an enigma to me. Yet we never questioned this unique shape we chose, because triangles mold themselves to every geometric pattern in the spectrum.

And so this triangle — this trifecta — became most familiar to me. Sometimes speaking with you was like holding a mirror, and at other times I could hear your echoes from the other side of the valley. You perfused yellow light with pink and red as we walked downhill to reach the end of the rainbow we hopelessly believed in.

Just three of us. We didn’t meet to repeat the same actions time and again, and we weren’t warned that we wouldn’t get a second chance, because we assumed we always would. Maybe that is why we truly absorbed every moment that trickled through the golden sieves through which good times poured upon us. In a way, we never thought of the future, and that’s why we retain priceless treasures that only we can understand.

We were wrought unbreakable; we honored what we had, and we honor the memories that survive. Now that we know what too good to be true feels like, we have a come a long way, embracing even more beautiful moments with unceasing faith, so similar to the sort we had in each other.

None of us ever said goodbye, for in our hearts we believed in repeated second times.

The gold at the end of the triangle was just a mirage, because the shape changed. Malleable, remember? We never said we’d stay or leave, and that’s why we smile at the unsaid promises we never broke. As the ends of the triangle slowly diverged, we started resembling a straight line, so evenly spread across — a path with a forward direction but no U-turn.

We, as this malleable iron triangle, conquered unfamiliar places and learned to understand ourselves and each other because of the secrets stored within. We never questioned things that occurred around us, but we learned to find answers when our shape changed. And people keep wanting memories to be repeated in an unfamiliar way every time, but malleable iron triangle, only one time with you was sufficient.

Malleable iron triangle — you may become have become shapeless, but you’ll never erase your mark.

featured image – Brittani Lepley