
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