Love’s Hangover

 

I am the memory

of a passionate night

remembered

passionlessly

 

I am the nightmare

you see in your sleep—

amorphous,

hovering

 

 

I am the shadow

that lingers

in the forgotten corner

of your mind

 

 

I am the pieces of the puzzle

that don’t fit in the frame;

the ones you toss

hopelessly aside

 

 

I am the cracked piece of china—

you know the one—

mended with super glue

and usually not used

 

 

I am the monument

to a horrific, historical event—

frequently talked about

but hardly ever visited

 

 

Yet I am all that’s left of us

and soon I will not even be—

Drunk as I am with the power

of my own forgetting.

Deborah Lilton

Memphis, TN

dlilton@yahoo.com