Duplicity

Who is this person?
I thought I knew you these many years!
But now
I find only an illusion,
and the magic of smoke and mirrors. 

Remarkably
you had no intent to deceive.
It was my inability,
to perceive.
 
Still,
It’s quite a shock
seeing  you this way,
for the first time;
through new eyes.

 Where do we go from here?
The friend I knew is dead.

Now
 I must choose to start over
or breathe deeply
and simply
move on.

I feel such loss.
But loss of what?
That which I have never known
or my illusion
of you? 

How strange, these circles of life.