Memory

Take this last kiss and taste it only once.

And if hope has long since departed,

if the spell of enchantment has broken in those far off skies

cracked with the ravages of age,

amid the crash waves upon the battered and rocky shores,

only then will we see,

that in walking away we were not wrong.

How those high mountains crept through my youthful fingers.

Before they withered with the wear of countless seconds

and the bitter sting of broken promises.

The past left us a vacant trophy,

A cracked and fractured participation award,

gifted without thought, foresight or any semblance of love or appreciation.

Now battered with ridicule and shame.

How proud we once were.

How impossible the image in the mirror seemed,

but in each other,

in the burning chaos and never ending circus of glorified side shows,

we found something worth keeping.

We found something worth holding tightly.

We found something worth remembering.

Perhaps for the first time ever, we felt something.

Can I not hold that one memory?

To hold and to keep,

Pressed tightly against my chest

on those cold nights when I lie alone and shake,

With more countless seconds yet to come.

And so many mountains yet to climb.