Where was I
When I first told this to you
Or have I even shared this moment
With you
Could it have been Mark that heard
Of my days as a customer
The next rung
A waitress
The next rung
An owner of the best family-owned
Breakfast of eggs and flapjacks
Coffee as black as the syrup is sweet
Restaurant that the town was blessed to claim

Or was it Shelby
The daughter I lived to raise
Who heard
Of my younger days
Ignorance ablaze and
Weeks running together
Like the innocence running
In my veins

I suppose it doesn't matter
Not when I have
Ninety-two rungs
On this old, wooden ladder
And each rung sprouts
An abated memory
In the recesses of my long endured mind
And telling them is the remedy
Though uneven
Though pieced together
Though without reason
They depend on whether
I can remember

But today I've hit a pocket
Of dug up dreams
And you got lucky
It seems
You ask me to retell
Of those days of
Well
There's just too many ways
To end that sentence
But to listen in
On the stories' whispering
Can form the face
Of my enduring history


It may pose a difficulty
When all that is left of me
Is a scattered
But strong
Memory
Residing in the family
For I have passed on
Your dusk, my dawn
But that remaining memory, the one so strong
It produces a spirited effort to prolong
My life
Of material possessions and love connections
Of boundless travels and difficult battles
Of living with the lost when life comes at a cost
And of a home stretch
I was blessed
With the tenderness a family wrought

You hold these regrets in the cage of your heart
The guilt of that absence tears you apart
You know that you had your chance to know me
And your reach of words was far too homely
But there are things that do live forever
And to these things your heart can tether
They're the memories you yourself cradle
Your mind is tender, and far beyond able
To know
that I lived to see you grow
Into child
Into thinker
Into a thought
That would linger
Within a fraction of time
Between your life and mine
Where experience will forever reside

You know what I mean
When I speak of a memory
Heaven knows we shared plenty
And as the years came closer to ceasing
I was delighted to see how increasingly
Similar you became to the ones I held dear
Sara's character and charisma
Rang perfectly in tune with you
Lisa's kindness really is the
Source of a son's optimistic view
And Shelby's palpable love
A single smile to be enough
To know where it comes from







One last thing before you stop
I remembered something about you
It's something I miss a lot
I would love to hear a song or two
I know that was your lingering thought
Shortly after I lost my hue
I know the joy it would've brought
To hear your fingers carry a tune
If only that moment we would've caught
Before I received a life anew

But I still hear
Better than before
And the lives still living
I certainly won't ignore