My Forth Visit

they are going to slip away
and be lost to time forever
i mutter to myself
it’s the fourth time i’m here
surrounded by the clutter
at the back of the store
the fourth time this year
sitting down on the floor
holding this stack of old photos
that was tucked away on the shelf
a stack of old photos
that i keep coming to see
to hold them a while
to extend them a smile
cause they smile back at me too
as if i was someone they knew
from their life long ago
they smile back up at me
inviting to show me their mystery
so i whisper down to them
tell me the history you made
the places you loved
the faces you knew
the names you would say
before you started to fade
before you were forgotten on the shelf
they looked up to me and said
it’s a tale too long for today
and those details are dead
but we weren't unlike you
we loved and we hated
we laughed and we cried
we destroyed and created
we lived and we died
and now we are in the middle of being forgotten
if only we had gotten a little more time
the things we would have tried
to not have our last moment for forgetting
be forgotten so soon
be forgotten here on the shelf
our whole life distilled to a snapshot
a cracked sepia toned square
an old crumbling snapshot
that won’t sell for even a dime
being forgotten is a painful process shaun
the last moment you’ll be remembered
is a moment very hard to guess
one day you exist
and then the next
you’re just gone
and there’s no coming back
this is the fourth time i’m here
but the first time i’ve cried
alone on this floor
feeling tear after tear
sliding down my face
while i mutter to myself
they are going to slip away
and be lost to time forever
but not today
and for the first time all year
their place on the shelf lays bare
for the first time all year
they come with me
to the the man at the till
who gives me a stare
as i hand him the stack
he says to me
you really cleaned those out
why don’t you take them for half
who would want an old photo
and i reply with a laugh
i don’t really know
and we walk out the front door
into the shining sun
i look down at them
they smile up at me
knowing they’ll be remembered
for at least one more day