Memory

Memory?
Or Memorial?
Which is it that I crave?
My desire to be remembered?
Or to remember…anything?
When I arrive at the end of years
Will I carry the remembrance
Of anything experienced
Of anything seen
Or heard?

Will anyone remember me?
Will I drift away like smoke?
Dissipating into air, aloft wispy vanishing clouds
Will anything of me be left behind
In memorial?
Will my ashes be scattered to the four winds?
Or trodden into muddy ground?
Will anyone remember me?
Anything I’ve done?
Any of my words?

--

If all I’ve done and all I’ve cared about
Is destined for the blackest void
Then why play the game?
Why put forth the effort
At living, the hardest challenge
The source of so much pain
Why care at all when there’s so little to gain
From the struggle against the shackles
That bind me to the wall
With no escape?

Maybe it’s the hope that someone will remember
The best of me, not my failings
But some tiny act of kindness
So easy to overlook
While my eyes are focused on the vastness
But not the hidden corner
Where worlds of love take shelter
From the battering storms of life
Impossible to invade
One must be drawn in

--

At the intersection
Of memory and memorial
Maybe both can be possible
At the end of my days
On this fragile earth
I can remember
While being remembered
As I take stock of it all at the End
When I fade into Time Eternal
Life’s final meeting place…