These were the names
of those who stood
their voices ringing
in the caverns
of his mind
all vitriol
all polemic
all ultimately
fruitless
their silence
now twice as loud
their absence
dawn raids
black-site prisons
This was forgetting
purposeful
with will
putting them away
behind a shroud
he would never
remember to lift
he wrote these names
in dust while winds
of self-preservation
randomized the letters
sent them careening
through the air
to land in
unrecognizable
configurations
his memory
wiped clean
their voices
no longer
ringing
“I’m alive”
he thanked the lord
and wondered
if anyone else
suffered too much
From the prompt: “He traced forgotten names in the dust, just to watch them disappear”.
Leave me a prompt and I’ll write you a little something.
