Friday, January 17, 2014

70

She pulled a cake from the fridge
It said happy birthday to the husband she loved
She placed it onto the table admiring her handy work

He liked the color red and the flavor of vanilla
She went to a drawer and found the perfect candles
The thin stripped candles that were red all over

Slowly she opened the pack
And sat at the table across from an empty chair 
Placing each candle precisely

A slow task it was to place thirty candles
Her hands shook uncontrollable 
She noted this was common for old age

She then lit the candles one by one
She sat and stared, never averting her gaze
The candles began to melt

As they melted, they waited
For the wind that would never come to blow them out
They melted into puddles

The puddles covered the cake
Every inch of vanilla frosting covered in a deep red
Covered until the red words could no longer be seen

Finally the candles went out
Smothered by their own wax
The wax hardening across the icing

She wondered who would light the candles when she was gone
Who would remember his name 
Who would remember what he loved

Thirty years had gone by 
Since the day people began to forget who he was
And she knew that one day soon he would be lost to history

Honesty

For a minute I will sit down,
And in this minute I will be honest with you
I choose to forget those who have caused me pain
"Why" you ask

Because it's easier to forget a person
You remove everything that reminds you of them
Extract every person you knew in common
Every picture discarded
All contact information removed

However, true pain is hard to forget
True pain is caused not by a childish act
But pain caused by a feeling of betrayal 
A feeling that cannot be left behind so easily
It is simply easier to forget the person

In the amnesic state they become irrelevant
And in their irrelevance they loss power over your emotions
Once they are irrelevant their actions become irrelevant
As you forget them you forget everything
Then one day you wake up

You no longer know their name
Then you no longer know that you once knew their name
The only thing left is a dull lifeless pain that is a shadow of what they caused
In this you truly forget not just them but their actions