Open the windows
and let the scarce summer wind
conjure figments and fragments
distant memories.

Remember how we were told to stay
indoors from March until May
only to let them in?

Distant memories.

It was already midday
when the sun woke me up
to voices, laughter, sounds familiar
playing in our living room.
The mirror gleamed by the foot of our stairs
as I raced my heartbeat down seeing myself
young at twelve
eight
two
thirty-seven and thirty-eight,
at last, we are complete!

Open the windows, I was told,
let our distant memories wind summer back
and again.

Open the windows and leave
them be.

KJCA

(Landscape painting in watercolor, KJCA, 2002)