Memories+by+Ananya+Subramaniam

The cracked path ahead lined with the songs of memories Thoughts of times forgotten seek shelter in the crevices of the leaves Of trees that frame the stairway to the place belonging once to you. A euphonious mixture of contentment and nostalgia invades The silence of the sleeping willows that cradle the house That once was yours, but is now one of many things lost.

For today the voice that speaks to you echoes the lost And the past is willed to survive through parched memories. But for all these years, the remembered has been buried with this house And secrets of the past have been shared only by the leaves. Thoughts of moments dipped in darkness invade As you submit to the calls of yesteryear that seek to submerge you.

And once again the piercing cries surround you The shadowy whispers begin to scream of the lost The voices of a mother, a father, a family invade Tinged with the odor of the blood of battle are the memories For it is not as if you had wanted to leave, Leave this place that held more than does a simple house

In those days, the only safe haven was this house And for the years of an eternity it was a symbol of love to you It had pained more than the pricks of infinite needles to leave As you had understood whence you returned, things may be lost Yet this house was an everlasting fortress for positive memories Those of love and life and laughter that can never be invaded.

But peaceful times were lost when the men invaded And you were brutally torn from the love of those people, that house And so you cradled what remained of the memories For when the war began, taken to the army were you And your mother’s words were a guiding light “//you will not be lost//” So you parted ways with those you loved; you had to leave.

And silently consuming you for years was the pain of your leave As thoughts and lost hopes many a night invaded For after the war, when you returned, the home was lost The people were lost, all was left was the shell of a house That was once a home. And never to return was the vow made by you For the pain of the moment was enough to envelope the blissful memories.

Yet here you stand, lost with the discordant joy and sorrow that surround you The secrets you left with the leaves emerge to reassemble the good memories Although they are gone, the house has salvaged the love that still invades.