'Closures'

I met you under a bridge
I met you and carried on, as if we were on speaking terms again
I shook your hand; asked how you were doing
went through the motions of catching up
and as if simple conversation had reconciled us
we talked some more as we made our way
to my primary school for our high school reunion
We never spoke of how it was
an execution ground during the Japanese occupation

The stairs seemed to go on and on
the stairs seemed to be haunted, but this isn't the one
I said to myself, the one that everyone used
with an urgency that was neither explained nor mentioned
isn't this one. I cannot remember
which floor it was that we had met the others
The irony was that these were faces
that I hadn't seen or heard from in years
faces that I will probably never see again

We were in a room and it was dark
we were in a room and it was dark because there was a projector on
and everyone was discussing angles and ideas
for a horror movie and this had made me uncomfortable
and then the projector went off
and I was alone
A light came on and I was staring at an exhibit of a stingray inside a glass box
I faced its underbelly; its mouth, a cut rectangle bleeding leftwards
was seen as a smile. And then I knew; this--this was what they were trying to emulate

( _")