Grimace

Dreaming on my bed cross-legged
Surrounded by still images:
memories, so to speak –
thousands of them
scattered and strewn
across the sheets,
carpeting the floor
from wall to wall.
Disorderly piles of them
like mountains and valleys
rising and falling
No rhyme or reason.

Infinitesimal moments
of a life – MY LIFE.
Seconds and
milliseconds
of things ONCE
part of a WHOLE.
Pieces of
people and
their Dramas –
MY DRAMAS,
now splattered
across my brain.

My childhood,
All of it there
SOMEWHERE – in the piles:
ME mixed with WE and THEY,
THEIR things and MY things!
ALL Foreigners now though;
Aliens to me, as
only fragments remain:
Partials of moments
Partials of people
tossed about randomly
into unlabeled piles…
unrecognizable as such…
too tiring on an old brain.

Look at this one:
The beginning of a grimace
at me from YOU:
One frame, one piece
of that moment!
A closeup of your mouth
NOTHING ELSE

A BIGGER STORY
once existed
around YOU and
YOUR Grimace.
But now lost
SOMEWHERE:
Cutup and
scattered among
debris fields;
old mental wreckage.
Crumbs of you
Strewn about
my disheveled mind.

Scenes of you
Once connected,
now dissected.
The story of YOU –
NOW many pieces
SPLATTERED
On the sheets
On the floor
In the piles
near the door.

A thousand pieces
once tied to your grimace,
HELD TOGETHER BY
NEURAL THREADING –
Now dissolved!
Gutted by time and
disturbances, to put it mildly.

Only your grimace remains.
I remember your grimace
but NOT YOU!
I see you grimace at me
IN my DREAMS!
A grimace without
A face, body, reason.
Where do I find all that?
Which piles, please?

Who are you?
Who were you?

Note: This story/poem is entirely fictional. All events, situations, circumstances, and characters depicted in this story/poem are the products of my creative imagination. Any similarities between story characters and specific people in the real world are purely coincidental and unintentional. My characters are composites of “possible” personality types, behaviors, and quirks that interest me.

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