You can’t crawl back into a moment in time. You can’t slip into it,
easy, like a hand through a glove. I can’t go back in time, drifting,
sliding into memory, but I try. It’s fuzzy on the edges, but if I focus in,
tight, I can see your face, reflected in the wine glass on a windowsill.
Your mouth moves, but I can’t hear your voice anymore. A sunflower head
perches in it now, empty and dried out, the petals hanging limply
or shriveled on a hardback that I left to prop the window open for air.
I’m drowning in air and drying out too, and soon I’ll just sit,
withering away like that flower. Lost in space, wanting to pull back time
like a filmy curtain, and just see you there with me again.
But still, here I am, just waiting, and the time ticks on.
Stage 4 of Grief is memorable! Your lines build and engage; the reflection, the sunflower, the pain * they work well together. I feel saddened by wanting to get that moment back myself… as you wrote: I’m drowning in air. Well done