if you remember me
remember me curled up in your duvet watching you play guitar
remember my hair caught in your mouth and the way we'd laugh in between kisses
remember our firsts and how wonderful they were we couldn’t help but come back for seconds and thirds
remember how the parts of me and the parts of you kept getting tangled in each other
how when we walked away we were both left trying to separate the two
remember me and I hope it's easier to breathe knowing the kind of love this world has to offer

if this is what the wrong love feels like can you imagine us when we find the right

Shhh...

Do you hear that sound?
The strains of distant music
Do you recognise the tune?
The way you used to sway to its rhythm
Do you know the words?
It’s an old favourite

Listen
And remember

Forgotton memories stomped in like strangers at a funeral, uninvited and unwanted, smiling like they belonged, but no one recognised their songs. As they talked, as they drank and sang, as they told their stories they became more strangely familiar. We found their smiles infectious despite our resistance and started to recognise some of their tunes at their insistence. Faint but familiar laughter echoed from fathoms below and slowly our mourning began to losen its wet hold. Our sadness became tinged with a happiness long forgotton and scenes from years long gone rose from the bottom of our dark well of emotion, lifting our faces to the surface, giving us a glimpse of a greater hope and clearer purpose, to tell our stories, with laughs and tears finding an uncomfortable coexistence as we danced and shared this messy remembrance.

I donned a suit of warmth
And dove into my memories
They swirled around my body
Teasing scars I left behind
But what once scraped my soul, past love
Won't hurt the same again
Taken softer, just a heartbeat
Like a storybook for me

A laugh
A grin
A hand
A kiss
Something to treasure, not to fear
For learning
For growing
Even for showing
In my heart, all held dear

I smiled as they carried me away
Letting them flourish, it gave me breath
For I knew a reader stood close by
In case I ever dove too deep

Dear Mama,
You would pause throughout the days amidst the drama,
And talk to me about why we should persist and what’s gonna,
Come of all of this and then climb out of the abyss to forget papa,
And reminisce in incidents of our time in home and in the old Honda.

Dear Papa,
It’s been a very, very long time without you,
A month after you were married, who knew,
You would be buried after a pew, pew, pew,
Shot twice in the upper back and once in the head,
We saw he was black as he ran off, up ahead,
Of your falling attacked body, we yelled as you bled,
Landed on the silver cracked and red stained cement.

Dear Sis,
I know we both long for and miss,
The man who’s gone for the abyss,
So, I wrote a song in honor of his bliss,
Haven’t kissed him since the coffin,
Church surrounded in a foggy mist,
Skin cracked and wrinkled, yet softened,
He will never be forgotten.