Forgetting You – a poem by Rick Leddy

 

Forgetting You

The years recede in forgetfulness

Missing memories become fabrications

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of how the stories should have ended

So many moments lost

So much of the precious mundane cast away

All that marvelous time receding

You are absent in scenes that were

And present in events you weren’t

The beauty of youth is fading

Into a stew of half-remembered forgeries

We look at photographs filled with disconnected time and place

I see small children with parents

But, I cannot recall the squeals and conversations

These words more important than Shakespeare’s

I cannot quote from my own life

It fills me with terror

Losing you

Misplacing all of you

Wandering alone with broken pieces

Breadcrumbs dropped on the trail

Lost and too numerous to retrieve

The collection of me lost in a cruel fire

A missing person in my own house

All I can do is hope and love in the present

Kiss you gently in the morning

Run my finger softly against your cheek

Whisper I love you

Try to capture the now in a vanishing snapshot

And not linger on the possibility

Of the future’s betrayal

I hold you tight

Feel your slow breathing sync with mine

I close my eyes against the fading light and incoherent shadows

And think

Right now

This is enough

Rick Leddy is a poet, cartoonist, graphic designer, author, editor, and art director. He is the author of two poetry books, “365+1”, a collection of poetry that contains 366 poems — a poem a day — for the year 2016 and “Metro Mona Lisa”, which chronicles his journeys on the Los Angeles Metro and containing a unique blend of graphics and written word. He has authored two other books: “LeBron James – King of the Game” and “American Heroes: The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Road to Glory.” You will find him fending off imaginary enemies in the park when he isn’t writing or drawing.