Just Returns

With hesitating gestures, I opened the mahogany trunk

Pages tinged with dogged sides brushed my fingertips

The rustling man-made leaves whispered in the air

They whispered, in quiet accusation, of the yesterdays

The letters were bound by a fabric scrap, her hair ribbon

The once invasive scent of lilacs had since melted away

Unfolding the lost hopes and dreams, I read the words

Scripted with painstaking beauty, each word elicited a memory

Gentle hours near the shore, breaths of chaotic frenzy

Giddy laughter echoing in the cabin, restful evening times

I feel the memories churn as subtly as a ripple

The ripple expands, while another materializes

The days that I lived, when I breathed with our life

I outlived them all, in return for naught but pottage