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

A Survivor's Credo

(and nature’s echo)

In spite of adversity, I will be

lavishly happy.

I won’t

bear the shame not mine.

I will not

punish myself

for the ugliness of another.

And, I will see

the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

sunshine on wildflowers,

creek beds rippling coolly—

a doe bends, sips

                       

she sighs heavily, light

with the headiness

of goodness after rain

© 2016 Jennifer Wagner