Please Don't Forget-Me-Not

Your name stays the same,

but unlike the freed bird

it sounds different every year.

Here’s to you, the right side of my bed,

You were never meant to be mine.

I don’t belong where beauty lays its head in dreams,

and dreams of where it wants to be.

Here’s to you, my sweet embrace,

to wine stains we cleaned with gin.

An angry mist drowning a rain forest,

believing that effort means more than result.

We dug a reservoir, but when the rain came down,

it was empty.

Here’s to you, my darling dear,

I can’t say your name.

Two years before, it was the ignition of fire,

the year after, a record player turned vase singing “Forget-me-nots” to blossom.

Now the song is faint, and static fills the cage.

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