This is really rough and will be reworked – The NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a nocturne.
I can’t sleep
at mother’s house
yet
light fades,
gives way to night.
Curtains cotton thin,
let the light in,
clock ticks too loud.
Time passes.
I come to visit,
shaded memories,
like a Pixar movie,
they come to life
when you go to bed.
There in the corner,
a wall of VHS,
dusted and grainy
a monumental waste,
a taste of remembrance
of shared time,
how fast
Time passes.
There in the shadow,
a dictionary
old words,
I used to search for
lost to us by now,
replaced with cyber references
you don’t understand.
Heavy gardening manuals,
decoupage and macrame books,
used before your fingers
were too artheritic
to tie knots.
Time passes.
That candlestick,
a Christmas gift,
the one I made
for you in 1986.
Azure glass glaze,
my fingerprints remain
forever in the clay
traces of a teenager,
in remembrance.
Time passes.
Remember when
I had that party
and the neighbor
grassed on me
You didn’t like her,
you miss her
now she’s gone.
Time passes.
Vinyl, you kept
only the best ones,
when grandma’s
sideboard got sold,
the best of Elvis,
Julio Iglesias and Demis Roussos,
A box of shot glasses,
wrapped in newspaper in 2001.
Time passes.
Souvenirs on souvenirs
surround you,
trinkets of a time
before old age
slowed you down.
Reminders of a time
when you
were strong
and had a sense
of belonging.
Time passes.
Lisa Goodwin Bard 