30 Day Poetry Challenge - Day Ten

Day Ten - Listen to an excerpt of Joe Brainerd’s “Remember” here: http://buff.ly/14GJb1c . Write your own version.



What Do I Remember?


Do I remember the nighttime games
With other neighborhood children,
Running through the darkness and
disturbing quiescent yards with raucous glee?

Do I remember hanging from a cliff,
Excitement and horror fighting over my soul,
And sweet, golden relief dowsing me
Like a victory vat of Gatorade
As unsteady feet were merrily greeted
By reassuring terra firma?

Do I remember the music;
The lads rowdily scorching the stage;
The circle of dizzy ladies
In matching fashion tank tops,
Swaying to the thundering melodies
As aural ecstasy filled their hearts?


Do I remember the broadcast;
Concrete and steel; burning… crumbling;
Tumbling aerial ballerinas taking
Fateful swan dives to the depths of madness,
Never to be seen again?

Do I remember a phone call
On a lazy, lie-in weekend morning;
A four minute conversation,
And at the end,
All the rules had changed?

Do I remember a choice; a journey, begun;
An infinitely complicated simplicity,
To reach within vast, darkly mysteries
And pull illumination
Out of a tall Grey hat?

I guess I remember all of this…
More than this.
I remember seconds and hours,
Days and decades,
Like endlessly whirling machinations
Of an eternal zoetrope,
Forever retelling an amazing story.