What have you become, my sweetest friend?
Though I hurt myself, I do not know
What you are, and what you may intend -
Where, and also wherefore, you go.

You were a delight, a gentle font,
Where I swam and where I found pleasure;
Where I found everything I want
And I found you too, my tender treasure.

How much have we traveled through this land -
How much have we seen and thought and fathomed!
With your heart and soul inside my hand,
I could see each cell and every atom!

How much beauty we have seen, and why
Did we never stop that awful battle -
In jacuzzi underneath the sky,
In Manhattan, New Orleans, Seattle -

On the Golden Gate Bridge and the Haight -
In Mill Valley, Salem and in Boulder -
Mixed emotions, caring, love and hate
And the rest, like in a pot, did smoulder -

Gave off heat and vapor, like a brew
That was tasty, aromatic, spicy, -
Which fumes through the atmosphere blew
And awakened everything enticing -

That in passion reached the people's hearts
And gave joy and solace to the wounded -
That tore everything that's false apart
And replaced it with the truth and goodness -

What have you become? I know you not
Any more; you're cold, nasty, vicious -
Did your heart and soul begin to rot?
Or did you simply become malicious?

Mouth spews lies; like lion it lies in wait
For the prey and then it lunges toward it,
Seeking to destroy, decapitate,
And in no way able to go forward -

Where's the girl I knew, that was so sweet,
Whom I cuddled, hugged and kissed each evening?
Is she lost in cobwebs of deceit?
Or is she herself the one deceiving?

I know not; it's like I lost an arm
When she turned into what she is now,
And perhaps with humor and with charm
I will make it through my days somehow.

Ilya Shambat.