She keeps songs
locked away in boxes
like secrets.
She will take them out
like postcards
to help her remember
the feeling of
a different time,
a different person
by her side.
She likes the one
that makes her
eyes close
to see the lights.
She smiles at
the one that
makes her stand
up on tiptoes,
the one that
helps her forget
she doesn’t know
what to do
with her hands.
The tune
will carry her.
Like it did
the times when
voices broke
like a heart.
When instruments’ strings
would snap
and hurt.