By: Susan Speranza

Five years of memories for sale by owner.
Better yet,
free to a good home.

I need to clean out the rooms of my life
where joy once roamed
and promises hung like sacred lanterns,
guiding our way to the future.
Now in the tomorrow of our hopes only grief remains.

I want to clear the chambers of my barren world,
discarding all that weighs me down,
down to bitter earth.
So these must go.

Memories meant to last a lifetime:
laughter to look back on in old age,
celebrations to remember with a smile,
passions to relive in the silence of the night.

The secret trails we forged,
the gnarled mountains we climbed
just so we could see the world
from heaven’s vantage point.

Our search for warmer days and lighter skies
where the sun lingered, conquering night,
where summer bled and banished biting winter
in the paradise we unearthed.

But now all these are gone,
their remembrances made rancid,
fouling all my days and burdening all my nights.
They have to go.

Five years of memories for sale by owner.
Better yet,
free to a good home –

One that will wipe away
the grime and filth of betrayal
so they might burn bright again
for someone else. But not for me.