This poem was first published in Tips for Writers Magazine (2013) and republished in my poetry collection, Chemotherapy for the Soul, launched by Canadian publisher Fowlpox Press (2017). It appears on page 1 in the collection.

 

Circle of Friends

Leilanie Stewart © 2017



We drifted in and out of bars back then

But when I drifted across the ocean

And came back, things were different

The talk was still the same,

Though the laughter had changed-

I had changed

And all of you had grown stagnant,

Bitter in your old age, simply because

You’d had a lifetime filled with

I’ll do this, and

What if that-

None of which amounted to anything

What a shame

What a waste

A circle of friends

Whose hopes and dreams and morals

Had no way of escaping a circle

That never had a beginning

Or an end in the first place.

About Leilanie Stewart

Leilanie Stewart is an author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has written four novels, including award-winning ghost horror, The Blue Man, as well as three poetry collections. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis of identity and create a new sense of being. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry. In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Magazine, a creative writing literary journal with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books. CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: https://mailchi.mp/75c5a1ad6956/leilanie-stewart-author-info

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