35. Forgotten

35. Forgotten

An Ode to Your Memory

You are like a scarce-remembered dream...
The details of which are long gone,
Replaced by mere impressions of the truth.
When you left, why didn’t you come back?

Times with you are the books we read as children:
Plots and characters are all but forgotten,
Settings have not withstood the ravage of time,
But we remember snatches of scenes—
Powerful moments that grew to define us.

Where did you run off to?
Why have you left us here alone—
Never again to feel thy warm soul on our hearts?
I am left only with a small memory—
A veritable shade of the true you.

A boisterous laugh filled with the cheer of years past,
The scent of travel that you always seemed to carry...
Is this all that is left of your once-proud self?
Will we meet again? And, if we do, will I know you?
Or will you be all but forgotten?

—C.R.E.