09-08-2023, 06:34 PM
The Names
There are names
I need to forget.
I’m teaching myself to isolate
them, to detach them
from their personae,
turn them into artifacts
I can no longer interpret.
When they appear in my mind
I discourage their masks
from taking the stage;
their enactments are not helpful,
they turn into a riddle
of imagined moments,
stories I tell myself
to reprove the present.
The present is all there is,
all there will be. These names
obscure and mislead, they
tell me lies I can no longer afford
to believe. It only remains to be seen
which of them will outlive me
which will be waiting for me
on the other side.
There are names
I need to forget.
I’m teaching myself to isolate
them, to detach them
from their personae,
turn them into artifacts
I can no longer interpret.
When they appear in my mind
I discourage their masks
from taking the stage;
their enactments are not helpful,
they turn into a riddle
of imagined moments,
stories I tell myself
to reprove the present.
The present is all there is,
all there will be. These names
obscure and mislead, they
tell me lies I can no longer afford
to believe. It only remains to be seen
which of them will outlive me
which will be waiting for me
on the other side.