LOST THINGS BY EMILY BENSON

I’m dreaming of lost things

Of walking through dark woods

Full of names my father taught me

That I no longer remember

On paths lined with goldenrod

Hoarfrost scars on birch trees

And power lines humming overhead

While my heart broke again and again

Of waves like hammered silver

Where you and I floated on driftwood

After I’d wept to find my childhood home gone

You’d leave soon after

And return and leave again

Unable or unwilling every time

I told you my tears weren’t from unhappiness

But we both knew that was yet another lie

It’s useless to recall these things

Old wounds long since closed

The scars on my arms and knees finally faded

And the car that broke down

The night you made me cry till my nose bled

Gone years ago

Other coasts and lifetimes separate

Your hard-won closure from me

My heart’s just a black hole

Old love spinning

Caught in the gravity of my grief

The weight of nostalgia

Churning a whirlwind in the darkness