they play in the shadows quietly
memories unwind on fragile threads
a reel of faces I once knew
their voices are echoes barely there
hands press mine—a stranger’s warmth
smiles gifted like flowers in winter
their stories loop but I am lost
where am I within this forgetting
once color burned bright in the reel
now black and white is all that’s real
they say my name, I do not answer
my mind, a room of locked doors
I reach for fragments in the dark
time fading, soft like withered petals
this is the cruelty of the earth
to erase what our hearts hold closest