Love Poem: Plagued By Memories
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Written by: Lin Lane

Plagued By Memories

I thought the layers of dust had settled
over what used to be the togetherness of 'us,'
and buried were our last tarnished traces.
But today, I found your pictures in an album
and my emotions started playing tricks on me.
Thought I heard echoes of your timbered voice
and even imagined your footsteps in the hall
            and then it stopped...
When I recalled that you'd fallen again, by choice
but this time I continued walking,
leaving behind the memories of 'me and you.'

They'd returned unbidden as they often do
after being hidden away for years.
Your barks of bitter words were spoken in haste.
Each epithet laying waste to what had been love.
Verbal daggers were lethal weapons 
and your voice threw them in brutal battle
            and then it stopped...
Because I'd left, but emotional scars remained.
I thought of them as gravestones, 
each marking the end of 'me and you.'

We've both moved on since those dismal days
but there are times when I still feel you near
like when I hear piano notes in a song
about a love like ours, gone miserably wrong.
It hurt when I tried tearing you from my heart.
For years I tried to drown out the sound
of your laughter, the touch of your hand
            and then it stopped...
My emotions were swaddled in melancholy blue
remembering the music you composed for me...
the unfinished symphony of 'me and you.'

Now, sometimes I wake, and the night is too quiet.
By habit, I reach for you across the bed
then hang my head and bite my lip,
licking the sanguine drop, I've drawn.
The taste of salt is on my fingertips
after wiping away tears I thought were done.
On nights like those I shudder in angst
           and then it stops...
When I remember why I finally walked away
and relive in my mind what you had done
the night you fractured the memory of 'me and you.'