My fingers glance gently over the clocks in the hall,

Measuring time that carries no meaning.

My slippered feet wander past rooms of memory.

That are so far in the past, yet ever present but indistinct.

Are my memories real? Are they true?

Or an imagined figment of an imagination grasping at what once was and is no longer?

The doors of these rooms along that long hallway are open,

But I can’t pass into them…

So I simply pause at each one, allowing my eyes to study each piece of furniture, each window hanging, each picture on the wall.

That bed with its’ brilliant white coverlet, scarlet pillows fluffed…

Where our passion came alive and where we found blissful sleep,

Your arm curved over my hip as we nestled together.

The framed pictures of we two,

Holding hands, smiling at each other, kissing, feeling loved.

The billowy curtains framing our backyard where we sat in the swing, admiring our colorful gardens and sweetly scented grass…

Our kids’ bedrooms, posters on walls, dirty clothes in a pile on the floor, mixed with clean clothes, no matter how often we admonish them.

A living room colored in pops of green and raspberry and cream…soothing to our souls as we’d sit together in the evening,

Me with a book and you on the computer.

A dining room that saw so many meals on so many evenings, over so many years, sharing our days, sharing our philosophies, telling stories of exploits and hard won wisdom with the kids.

I drift past those doors in my mind,

In my heart,

Hearing the muted tones of bygone days,

And I wonder how life feels so full, and then so empty, and both full and empty at the same time…

Memories of yesterday and a life today, though it is without you.

I’m here and yet, in so many ways, not here at all,

No matter the efforts I make each day, each moment, each month and each year,

And I think that maybe, it’s okay to be here, and there, too,

As I wander those halls of memories,

My fingers gently trailing over the clocks,

Tracing Time~