Keep-Sakes II

                        For Victoria

Places and things and people come and go

Throughout a life: we keep their memories dear.

But what do we keep when we go from here

And even memory is no longer there,

Without objects or the words and such

A means to know, so knowing now too much?

A chair is just a place to sit but where

You sat I see you there, though now the chair

Sits empty, as I write I see you here.

Will you see me this same way as you play

At the bar each day when you sail away,

A memory held so dear, but only a word?

Like saying “chair,” an echo overheard,

These recollections hold all we would cherish

Removed from objects loved, now only sound,

That person met, this place, a friendship found,

Echo of other places till we perish

And, holding nothing, silence all we know;

Your face a word that echoes other faces

Known, see here, hear it, calling far off places,

The sound of waves upon some foreign shore,

Remembered memories till know no more.

If I have failed to show my feelings when

You were near, failing to express again

A stronger feeling here, truly I have failed,

Better unsaid my love, better never sailed.

KLK

2008