Welcome

By: Keithayonna Davis

I opened an old book.
Let the pages glide through my fingers.

Pain, frustration and grief
Crept in like an old friend.
Sorrow.

I wish
I could go back
Recreate memories that now taste of bitter fruit.
Pour like hard rain on a day I prayed for sun..

Dates, time, places.
Pieces to a puzzle
I really don’t want to put together..

The girl in these pages.
A stranger now.
Body,
Movements,
Emotions.
A star in this movie she calls life.

I washed them for her.
These pages.
Scrubbed them in a river that floats old bones
Till my hands burned.
Till the pages turned soggy.
Till faces resembled abstract art.

Said a prayer.
Crossed my heart.
Forgave.
Forgot.
For her.
I let it go.
Watched it sink.
Soak.
Eternally baptized
In the river that floats old bones.