Painful Memories

It's about either holding on to our past of empty vision or moving forward from the pain.

The room is dim,  

slides of photos flicker,  

memories swirl,  

until they reveal emptiness�"  

blank frames  

repeating their silence.  

You hear the whir of the machine,  

accompanied by a distant music box,  

playing softly in one of the bedrooms,  

an empty crib,  

a broken doll.  

You lift the doll  

to your chest,  

feeling the weight of pain within.  

You can’t bear to dwell  

on the horrid assumptions,  

yet reality begins to seep in.  

She’s gone.  

Where?  

Why?  

How could this happen?  

You clutch your grief,  

spiraling into madness,  

as the music echoes on repeat.  

You gaze at the empty walls,  

the photos now taken down.  

What is left to do?  

What is there to live for?  

You must remember�"  

this was your past.  

A child may be broken,  

but a woman is rising anew.  

You must move forward,  

becoming the voice  

for the girl who was lost,  

who can soon be found.  

The you before the trauma  

is gone.  

The you today stands tall,  

even if all you can muster  

is to plant both feet on the ground�"  

you’ve conquered your first step.  

Don’t let this painful memory  

define you,  

or dictate the woman you are meant to be,  

for if you do,  

the music box will play  

only for an empty room.  

(c) Chong Kim, 2012

Reviews

[Relic]

Wow, this is so sad and eerie. There's a lot of emotion in this and the music box in the other room adds to the dramatic feel of the poem. Really well done.