DO YOU REMEMBER ME

Do you remember me...?
I remember those early morning
polaroid's bleary-eyed
​and banned from affection.

How about those empty promises
and longing cries,
from inside the turtle’s chest?
The very place where I kept
my childhood safe and secure.

Or when I climbed up
hidden ledges in the closet
to feel snug,
wiping sadness from hollow walls.
The only place I could etch my name
to be seen in the world
in the wood,
that held the house together.

Do you remember..?
How I’d put my dreams in a little
green box by night and whisper
to the clouds because grey
was so silent and I was so sure,
the heavens would hear me.

Do you remember..?
Those long days in puddles
on the streets at Ridgewood.
Blue, pink, and yellow chalk
on the ground, on fingertips.
How I'd ride down the big hill
for mom’s tobacco and milk
and maybe,
even steal a pie or two.

Do you remember me, dad?
Through all those bad dreams,
in waiting for you?
In waiting for my brothers,
for family time because
"little girls could get lost in the crowd."
​
In waiting for your voice,
on the other end of the phone.
Waiting by the door,
the window,
outside,
looking,
waiting in fear,
in hoping,
in waiting
and waiting..
In waiting for you-
to remember me.
Dad,
​for you to remember.
I’m waiting,
through days passed...
In waiting,
​through years gone fast
waiting...

I’m still waiting..

I remember, dad.
I remember it all-
- Tiny Poet, Do you Remember Me?, 2017