I think my skull would rattle if you shook it –
filled with an assortment of past things.
I’ll pluck and keep them as trinkets,
souvenirs, mementos of has been.
I fear losing thoughts, and days,
so I pocket reminders of each place I go
(in heart, in mind, in body, in soul).
A dried flower in a photo frame,
a sea shell, a postcard. If I don’t
recount the dream, I didn’t dream it.
If I don’t spill my heart onto paper,
I didn’t feel it. If I don’t take a picture,
maybe I was never there.
I fixate on picking up pieces…
collecting a trail of life’s breadcrumbs
instead of leaving them behind,
so I can remember how time followed me.
Holding onto birthday cards and relics
of people and their words.
Maybe this way I can be more
than just a person, but pieces of the world.
Lauren Kathleen 