Memories

Old photographs

Collecting in moldy cardboard boxes

Their edges beginning to crinkle

Their pictures fading to yellow

And thinning

So when you pick them up

To look at them

They are slightly transparent.

Old words

Like a full hard drive

Or a long-forgotten notebook

Conversations long gone

Thrown into a metaphorical wastebasket

Crumpled up

Recycled

Never to be seen again

They dissolve

Letter by letter

And sentence by sentence.

Old colors

That slowly fade

So when you look at them

You think

That they don't seem so bright anymore

The feelings they used to bring

No longer coming

Until maybe they didn't happen

Until it definitely seems

No, feels that they happened

To another person

Because you've grown past them.

My head is full of dust

And boxes of moldy pictures

And disintegrating words

And fading colors

Cobwebs hang in the corners

And dust coats the floor

Until I reach into my head

And pull out an old photograph

Or word or color

And then I can relive it.

After all

They are what makes me

My adventures

My friendships

My work

My life

And I will always keep them safe

Stuffed in a box

In the back of my brain.

I will add new pictures

Until the old ones disappear into the bottom

So far down

I won't even be able to wade

Through the new ones to reach them

Forgotten and discarded

Because I can only hold so much

Inside my head.