Julia's Poem

I am driving away from it all

on the fumes

of a page cracked diary

crumbling in sorrow

its lock encrusted in rust

like the anchor 

we all hold on to

life's amalgam of memory

is what threads us together

these plastic lanyards of thought

one uniform stitch

knots life, blood, spirit, memory

to unfurl its architectural essence

 

I have been here before

in a wall of silence

the only sound

of a small waterfall

joining a river

as a sparkling flow catches

between the rocks

rose real perfume

like the oil I wore

when we were free

years later

that is your memory

mine returns in these petals

like a frail notebook of pages

lost in the middle of a desert

dense petals like resin

suspended in rain

each paetal overlaps

the vulnerability of scent, sound, sight

now we are together

as each petal unfurls

to come closer to truth

 

who were you?

amongst the tea roses

in life's intricate tapestry

vulnerable, vicious, venom

a new stitch unravels

mystery's hand

 

who were you?

sweet, sour, salty

all the eroded thoughts

like potholes

of the day

composted bitterweet earth

in between lies like stories

dissipated in a trail of cigar smoke

 

I encapsulated all the precious tokens

in a box of cubans

in earth's aroma

I carefully navigated my life

up until now

 

what is a road

but an umbilical chord

of memory

cut and tied at each stop sign

 

I retrun to these places

to retie the threads

and to tell myself

I am still here

the worn signs

the paved roads

the tree no longer

the kudzo approaches every year

a green entangled zoo

 

eventually all neighborhoods

turn to plastic

while I burn old signs

in the backyard

smoke like pine needles

ignites my dreams