Today is your birthday.
I always got to be your age for
12 days.
We had years I threw away
like everything.
12-22.
The pin to my old phone for a
long while.
So simple,
people asked why.
I always shrugged it off.
How do I explain to people
that I carry around pieces of
everyone I ever love?
That I can point many changes
in my life
to a certain person?
That I never shed a person
completely, and
that I think of every lover
daily?
You helped me quit smoking.
Another showed me how to hang
on to those we love loosely.
Yet another taught me
the destructive power of anger.
I dream of them all regularly.
I dreamt of you last night.

I suppose we all carry the memories
of everyone, but especially the ones
we love.