Memories I Wish I Could forget

I close my eyes
but the past
keeps playing
like a film
I never asked to watch.

It doesn’t rewind.
It repeats.
Over
and over
until it feels
like now.

A laugh
that wasn’t real.
A goodbye
that came too early.
A promise
never meant.

I touch today
but yesterday
grips my fingers.
It whispers
in the voice
I thought I forgot.

I want to forget.
But my mind
remembers
in colors too sharp,
in sounds too loud.

And I hate
how some memories
don’t fade
they follow

Still, I stand.
Still, I breathe.
Still, I walk forward
with shadows
on my heels.

I carry them,
not because I want to
but because
they remind me
what I’ve survived.