I'm trying to see past all this

by Bru


I Am Going to Breathe You Out of My Head

I need new memories
to cover up the old ones.
So I grab my ankles
when I'm sitting down and nervous,
wondering if anybody's staring
at my pointy bones.

I need new memories
to cover up the old ones.
Just for a little while.
Just enough whiles so it doesn' t
hurt so much anymore.

I don't need so many.
I can put some in a box
with ribbon on top
and send them to you.

Would that be all right?
Will you tell me that it would be all right?
If you told me it would be all right,
then I could use the rest of my blue ribbon.
The ribbon I put in my hair so you would
notice it matched my eyes.


I guess that one's going in the box too.

------------

The Writer

Papa read every one of your articles in the newspaper.
He'd flap the pages so they stayed stiff when he read.
He always finished with a smile.
He kept the words in a dark wooden box
on the top shelf in the closet.

When he died last Thursday,
he took all those stories with him.
He'll tell new friends about how you
witnessed doctors performing brain surgery,
and young girls finding their birth mothers.
And how that one firefighter made meatballs
that tasted exactly like your widowed mother's.

Every Christmas he would say
how well you had done this year.
And every Christmas you would
tell him, "Thanks Dad."
You loved him more than your words.
You loved him more than any words.
More than any words.