face to face

 Face to Face

she avoids remembering

memory entry denied

halted at the gate, turned away

The street, the house, the town

all roads leading

forgotten

 but not without effort

suppression became her way

a conscience choice

intentional amnesia

obliteration blended into being

conditioned

 moments move, seasons pass

five and ten, then twenty years

time happily neglects

forgetting becomes natural

not a conscience act

the roads and streets, the house and town

remain defunct, abolished

snuffed out

 Then a thing no one predicted

unsuspecting, superficial

quiet, curious and new

both unseen and all seeing

memory with no emotion

it finds her

 one future working day

head grey with glasses

focused on the screen

a body full and formless

comfortable in age

and in lumbar chair

technology makes its acquaintance, and she

innocently accepts

friendship

 the past has looped around

revived, resuscitated

it reached around, quietly,

covertly breaking barriers which

haven’t been maintained of late

or of long

 foundation cracks, walls crumbled

the closet door flings open

revealing that, which

had been left long behind

now stands in front

face to face with yesterday

shock, disbelief, unable to look away

acknowledgment

 flooding her - it stifles

drowning, suffocating

attacked and assailed by

jumbles of old stuff shoved into a box

bursting into confusion

panic

looking down disoriented

at her feet a mess of old fears

sucking like quicksand

she notices

the debris is no longer sharp

nor as large

mostly worn and faded, crumpled and rumpled

about three sizes too small

she would never wear this

no longer her style

settling herself among the past

she begins to arrange, to coordinate

calling each piece by name

conversing with the past

no longer enemies, not quite old friends

an understanding

she neatly sorts and folds then puts away

laundry, notoriously and long accepted

as dirty