I actually remember the story behind this poem! This is the first poem I ever wrote, and interestingly enough, the first poem I ever had published! It was published in an issue of Teen Ink when I was 16 years old. I, or my parents, still have a copy of that issue somewhere. Now I just need to find the poem that took Top 10 in that competition my senior year of high school. I think I won, like, $50 for the honors.
Anyway, the inspiration for this poem was the instance where I looked at a friend and realized that she looked older even though she looked familiar to me. I'd only known her for a few years, and there wasn't any major gaps in those years where I would have an old memory of her appearance. She didn't look drastically different either. It was just that she really didn't look like a little kid anymore.
Between the Lines
As I gaze at my old friend,
I begin to wonder where
Yesterday had gone
Because I've noticed something there.
Her face held something different
Until now it stayed unchanged
Childhood had left
And adulthood set up stage.
No longer a child
As "thou unrelenting past"
Didn't drift away
Be engraved itself to last.
Her face is still the same
Yet etched between the lines
Are the events of yesterday
And the future keeping time.