Changed, But Seemingly Same

Ten years after a farewell,
A decade of silence and whispers.
Not a friend too close;
Carried away by the clock-work life,
Where everything's a ritual.

It may have been years
Since I last saw the face.
We - two of a quartet,
The best minds in a lyrical asylum
And the perpetrators of chaos.
And thus I sighted him -
Wider and ears redder -
Changed, but seemingly same.

Feet from him, and I called -
A recognition? Maybe surprise.
Eyes wide and ears redder,
And then a crease of the temples.

Eyes searching for a name;
His face wasn't lying -
Recognition absent, but just that hint.
Or was I just hoping?

The same man, the very same,
In ticks of clocks,
In spinning of gears,
And in the passage of time,
Had a feeble mind.
'Twas the age of silence, in ignoration.

The head turned and
His feet took him away.
And I stood there, just there;
Looking up, seeing, not the sky
But the truth of time.

That it wasn't the same as then,
'Twasn't a twist of fate,
An everyday error: to forget.
That it had to happen then;
That it made me think he was
Changed, but seemingly same.