Memories and Dust

Photos strewn across cluttered tables

An old scrapbook bursting at its seams

Memories bind me, constricting cables

Reminders of another world and old dreams!

Shards of glass scattered on the floor

Tiptoeing, careful, lest a splinter cut me

I know they should lay there no more!

Yet here I am, unable to break free.

Reading once and several times again

I should stop and start writing now

To change the past would be in vain

On a fresh page I have to pen somehow.

Sweep away the broken glass, I must

New whiteness I have to embrace

Clear away the memories and dust

New words my pen shall trace!

Lingering Past

Lost in that endless maze, my memory lane

Trapped I am in that familiar snare.

To leave it behind would inflict pain,

Which I know not if I am ready to bear.

Dwelling upon old memories sweet,

Hours long, I can willingly spend.

The pace of the present, I’m unable to beat

The rigid walls of time, I wish I could bend.

With distrust in my eyes I do view,

(Reluctant to accept, to make it my own)

All present trials and ventures new.

Everything I have, merely from the past, a loan.