“Mementoes or Memories”

“Mementoes or Memories”

How many years

drift with algae for thousands of years

if even machines fall asleep

and a song drags through my fingers

pointing to a painting

to be burned in the morning

for colorful irises

dyed by a winter wind

on the blamed island,

singing songs to know one

party dresses bathed in blood

and curtsies torn from a cue book

of haunting plays, sinister soundtracks

lemons to hand you photos lemon-scent

your wedding sun,

you don’t remember doing the dishes

all those nightshirts or the jobs laying steamrolling vegetable prints on your table clothes,

but you do remember birthdays

and the special chandeliers

licking your diamonds in the glinting light

sundresses and ladybugs

bathing suits and severed hands:

what remains

for poetry to destroy forever.

Tags: Mementoes or memories, Nicholaus Patnaude, poem, poetry