After The Pain

Memories arrive uninvited—

Slamming the screen door–

Materializing out of thin air,

Startling in their abruptness.

Hiding in the anguished light following sunset;

Riding the moon impossibly high on warm nights;

Inhabiting strangers in the warmth of a glance.

Lurking in familiar places—

Stirring up the dust of a kiss in the rain,

Echoing weeping and laughter.

Ignore them and they raise a terrible clatter;

Embrace them and they lead you nowhere—

And never let you go.