When You Remember

One, Two,

Counting Steps...

Footprints abandoned

Faded,.. Shallow...

Impressions left

Guiding Figures

Silhouettes alight

Shadows cast

Walls in plain sight

A bright future

A creeping past

Encroaching on a lone survivor

Stuck opposed

Gazing at our traces

With twisting faces

I could not follow

As shadows tugged on my ankles

Closer we become

I want to help them

But foreboding it becomes

The light ahead flickers

A need to look

But terror rises

The gleaming lights tell me to face forward

I cannot look away

As I see their shoulders

Weighted in shadows

The chill up your spine

Pulling you back

Climbing further

An odd desperation

As they start to sway

Closer it comes

I can no longer keep it at bay

The dread overcoming them

Panic reaches me too!

I reach ahead

Seeking a hand

Hoping for anything

So small and unaware

Unprepared

Searching for my guide

There is none to be found

The light has gone

The weight on my back grows

As I know what's coming

Scared and alone

I look towards the other lost soul

As they look at me

Our eyes meet.

Such big eyes...

That I wish could only look forward

Knowing I cannot prevent it.

They sink to their knees

As though a last apology

I finally turn

And see what they see

Little me,

I'm so sorry

A wreckage of shadows

Footprints, not as they once seemed

No calmness or peace-

As once trained to believe

You will be here for a time

Horrors overcome

As truth is lost

Trust corrupted

You will lose sight-

Of all that you know

As I did

You will soon

Seeing the weight

Of every step taken

I hadn't known

I carried so much

Now you see

What lies at our backs

Was I blind to not see?

No.

You suppressed,

You survived.

The horror we could foresee

Even that which we couldn't

Has greater clarity in hindsight

Time will bring the past to meet you

Time will heal

Time will tell

Will you have enough to wait for it

History exists at all points in time

When the past meets present

It will become you

If you let it

Will you?

Or will you be stuck

At the wreckage where they joined

Carrying it to your future.