How To Remember

Holding up your flag high
Stars, stripes, symmetrical pride.
Echoes of unwritten memory --
Teasing time.
Wrapped tightly in your heart
Holding secrets of your art.
All it would take, is one big break
To spread them across history.
A cup of tea, a warm face, a blanket
Resting on aged legs.
Tell me one more story,
Before they turn out the lights.
I know how the night brings you fright.
In this home of forgotten might.

A walk home, to an old porch swing song
Screen doors clapping, rapping.
The grass was green, yards kept neat.
No one used car seats.
Housework still never rewarded.
Wine passes time, but how we looked divine.
The day he brought the new car home.
Or when he left it for the war.
Children's shoes, simple toys amused,
The only fears were nuclear news.

I am here again, can she play?
The nurse always frowns when I put it that way.
Wheeling out her grand grace
As if someone made a mistake.
The frown leaves her face
Now replaced
Happy tears can be traced.
Dark spots on her skin, fake teeth put in.
No one here sees her complete.
Outside today, can we stay?
A practiced smile answers.

Leaning in, her death shadowed breath whispers,
"You look so much like your mother.
Who looks like me, echoes we prove to be."
In these moments, her age fades
Revealing who she is -- A beautiful resemblance.
Nana, I brought my pen again.