Reminder

First Published in the Vox Poetica

Time is a gentle reminder of you

a sepia stain on my white blouse

Time gently scrubs you

and yet you are here

/always here/

like a nostalgia

 

a whiff of that strong aroma

in the middle of the street

which blanks you mind

and numbs your senses

for just that freckle of a time

 

your memories are

always present like the

my favorite childhood song

on the tip of my tongue

or the fleeting glance of my love

in the crowded room

enough to satiate my desire

for my love, too young

 

Time sit still like that blackbird

on my window sill

we give each other company

a stranger of sorts

an unwilling companionship

 

With every breath carved from my chest

I lose a moment to the time

Like those vintage records

needle scraping the surface

birthing the music sublime

 

A wait too long turns sour

like the milk left overnight

I can taste the sourness

in the back of my throat

the metallic pain of

separation and loss

 

you are that lingering taste

which sits on my tongue

an ordered thought in

the disordered mind of mine.

Photo by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash

–Megha