To My Friend Behind the Wall

“Tell everyone what you have seen here” was the instruction
as you handed me a candlestick made of blue and white flowers.

It was an exchange that we made that day, when I accepted your gift.
It was some kind of promise, which I have since broken many times.

I don’t know why you picked me, out of our group of ‘observers’.
Was it because I was the only one to look you in the eye and smile?

But, I have been a coward, my friend behind the wall.
I have not kept my promise.
I have not told everyone. I have not told anyone.

Yet, occasionally, after all these years
at the end of a dark rainy day, I light a candle for you
and I place it in my candlestick made of blue and white flowers.

I remember as the wick burns down
and I whisper to myself
like a prayer, like some kind of promise
that I will tell everyone what I have seen.