Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Somehow I'd Forgotten All My Memories

 

Somehow, I’d forgotten

all my memories,

or was pretending to

 

like a zombie

milling about

in search

of sustenance.

 

So, after the funeral,

I ran.

 

After all the history sharing,

and others’ merry making,

I ran.

 

I tried to be nonchalant,

missing a few steps

on the way

down the stairs

and out the door.

 

It was this weird, clean

break inside me.

 

And how could I say it—

it was one I was happy for.

 

Since all my memories

weren’t roses and candy,

since more than a person had died

and my own heart

was still being stitched up

in fresh bandages,

 

I just wanted solace,

to turn up the stereo

in my car,

to drive through the mountains,

clouds breaking—

 

tossing my rings

out the window

unmarried

to the Me Too

I left behind.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

For Shay’s Word Garden Word List—Save Yourself

 

NPM Day 17

8 comments:

  1. Jennifer, this is absolutely brilliant. I love how you used the words to craft this poetic story. I would never have guessed your poem was written using a word list. It flowed SO well.

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  2. Powerful poetry. It's a journey through painful to a sense of freedom.

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  3. Oh my. The best poems are always the ones that come from both head and heart, and this one displays your considerable talents at both. Wow, that wind-up. We pass through the fire and never come out the other side unchanged, but it's difficult and brave to describe any of that in lines. I don't think I will forget this one any time soon, if ever. What a poem. What a poet.

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  4. I agree with Shay. This poem will stay with me..........brave and real, and so well done. Wow.

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  5. Having lived as long as I have, there is no way I could have escaped what you so beautifully describe in this poem. Brava, Brava.

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  6. "since more than a person had died" -- You express how so beautifully and succinctly, and the desire for a freedom to mourn, freedom from a stultifying funerary moment.

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  7. I’m always blown away with your poetry and this one doesn’t disappoint. You are truly an amazing poet and this is one of my favorites.

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  8. tossing my rings /out the window / unmarried / to the Me Too / I left behind."

    Great ending.

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Thank you for your thoughts!