Fragmented Life

(From Pexel)

1. The familiar faces, the tentative hugs
smiles radiating brilliantly through masks
words tumble out in a hurry
trying to make up lost time
perhaps I am alive again

2. Words clamour to skip on paper
to showcase and receive applause
I quell them forcefully
sometimes ordinary conversations
steal the limelight of meticulously crafted words
taking centre stage surreptitiously

3. Snatches of tête a tête, whispered gossip
I turn hearing my name
wiping guilt from his face, he smiles
I smile back
he carries baggage from the past
which has no place in my future

4. We know not when the next opportunity will arise
ominous “you know who” is spreading tentacles
I had stepped into the reality of living
only to be snatched back from the brink
to the unreal life of real fears.

Written for dVerse. Today’s host, Laura says: So for this prompt we are to write a Modernist/Post-Modernist Fragment poem ~by that I mean

Either: 
a  poem of several  numbered stanzas. Each being complete in itself and having only a passing relationship to each other, if at all
OR
a poem of disjointed images (like listening to conversation in passing, repetitively switching between radio/tv station, random images across a screen, or paintings/photos seen in a gallery)

Rules:
Your poem should NOT conform to any rhyme scheme
Your poem MUST include Fragment(s) somewhere  in the title.

We took a road trip recently to attend the wedding of a classmate’s daughter. Meeting school friends after a gap of two years was unreal but magical.