Prompt #1
After Diana Khoi Nguyen

This is how she found me
the past draped around me like a cloak.

A box full of pictures and memories,
a kiss on the cheek at Whatcom Falls
from when I used to visit years ago
a different world from the barren desert.

A kiss on the forehead
from when she was sleeping
after her return from her Greek adventures

Pens and unused flowery notebooks
books and memoirs she read

A childhood picture (that I would send back
if I knew where she lived)
pictures of Bruce
her feisty Chihuahua companion
pictures of us

This is how she found me
the past draped around me like a cloak
and I feel nothing;
no sorrow, no grief, no love, no longing;
This is how she found me
the past draped around me like a cloak
that I shrug off
because I don’t want to be found