You'll linger.
Like a bad smell.

Like a ghost.
Haunting my mind.

You'll hide.
In every corner.

Never seize to exist.

Memories will play on repeat.
Memories will play on repeat.
Memories will play on repeat.

You see once you touch a person.
They'll never ever leave you alone.

Hurt people will hurt people.
That's just the  way life goes.

You'll linger like a bad smell.
You'll linger like a ghost.

Once you mark somebody.
You mark them forever,

I guess you didn't know.
I guess you never cared.

Just how much touch.
Would sting my skin.
Would scorch my mind.

Memories will play on repeat.
Memories will play on repeat.
Memories will play on repeat...

I wish there was a  rewind.
Instead I'll settle for a pause.

Knowing you can't get to me.
At least not now not anymore.

Over the wide fields

of collected memories --


the past strides about.

Ornate iron bars that twist and swirl
on windows of a stone Baroque house:
Their billowing lines flow and unfurl
like the linen of a wan lady’s blouse.

Late sun casts her umbra on the stone wall,
a dark bramble of shadowy vines
that cling to the plaster in ways that recall
hung forests of lost memory and time.

Into this dark wood I walk with my mind
to retreat into the past of this place
and see how far the clock I can unwind
for to pass through its pale numbered face.

There faces now greet me, spirits of old
who once walked this very same street.
They look astonished at how I was so bold
as to travel there to warmly them greet.

To be remembered and seen once again
is a gift for which they’ve waited a year.
For as this day fades, the dark windowpanes
between our two worlds turn into a gauzy frontier.

And so the veil of the quick and the dead
turns thinner for just a brief night
while the faces of those who’ve gone on ahead
to the other side shine their dim light.

I'm from a small two-story house on Heatherwood Circle
from mild Summers and freezing Winters
from snow days and hot chocolate to bike rides every morning and evening

I'm from Olmsted Falls ISD where there are four different schools for elementary school here
from Helping Hands and computer lab
from everyone in the class is invited to birthday parties
from a surprise visit from Ronald McDonald

I'm from Kids First Daycare
from Summers of fun and field trips
from taking the wagon to the other grades to collect their leftover food
from the best lunches I've ever received from a school; Buttered Noodles, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs
from kind teachers and amazing friends I'd watch movies with while we waited for our parents to pick us up. We never got to finish Wall-E

I'm from change
from moving
from new friends, new house, new school
I’m from new
I’m from restarting

I'm from not-so-happy endings
from ups and downs that made me a better person
from learning how to make the most of my current situation
I'm from New Beginnings

I thought I saw you walking
I say it casually but that's a lie
Gave me a heart attack
But it wasn't one, no
It felt like a lightning strike
Sent from the heavens
Like some sort of divine torture I'm not meant to understand
Could you make it stop??