you I'd treated stranger

"Cookies"
(a sonnet)

I saw your face today but didn't see you;
I passed you by with neither smile nor wave,
but knew it you but seconds later, peering
behind and pond'ring clearing my mistake.
Our eyes had locked, and you I'd treated stranger:
for this I'm stricken now with pangs of guilt.
The corner of your lips proved recognition,
yet mine, pained, answered no more than a wilt.
You I must have offended, so I turn
on my return to where you had been sat,
to conjure few apologetic words
to promise you I'd not forget you yet.
When mental data clouds, erodes, and blurs,
our photos fade; friend's face, when faced, demurs.

[read my other sonnets: Incubus | The Courting]