Memories

Staring across the black waters of Lake Geneva, a girl in my arms and a smile on my lips,
The pounding of the heavy metal music in my blood and ears, sweat pouring down my body,
A tear sliding down her face as we say goodbye, turning I keep my own from falling,
Wind tearing through my hair as we turn the sailboat into it, fingers trailing through the waters,
The twinkle and spark in my eye as we dance on the bar, Chinese faces foreign but filled with the same pleasure,
A clock showing four in the morning, as the computer screen blurs and burns, a pile of open psychology books and a deadline fast approaching,
His eye flickers a little as I stare down at the sterile hospital bed, the only motion he can still control as the disease takes from him what is most precious,
Glass globes fill every niche and corner of the room, each a perfect memory,
Dust lays thick on some, and others shine with an inner light,
Some are fogged and stained over, and more yet are crystal clear,
Delicately one is lifted off the soft pillow it rests on,
Inside I hold someone precious to me as we listen to music fill our hearts, and souls,
With a crash that sounds deafening in the silence the globe shatters on the ground,
Its neighbor, a scene of a hospital bed and a scared little boy, follows it to the floor boards the smashing of glass its death cry,
Slowly with building fury, I take each memory off its shelf and smash it to the floor, hurl it against the wall, crush it beneath a boot heel,
Until nothing remains but empty shelves and bits and pieces of glass,
Turning I walk out the door and close it firmly behind…