burning photos
if i thought burning your photographs
could make you disappear
how wrong i must have been
i set your polaroids to light
i set those paper-back frames to embers
and i watched as they burned
burned
burned
but those picture grew flaming
they disintegrated into ash alive
they drowned me in their smoke
and sunk me in your memories
the colors of the photos were screaming
they were brighter than they had ever been
marred under a kaleidoscope of reflection
they spoke to me in stories
those pictures burning so desperately
sent torn shards your face spinning
your laughter filled the room
along with the crackling flames
i watched the photographs come back to life
their spirit mirrored in shapes of smoke
they danced and spoke the words
that i tried to burn in those photographs
the embers and blackened coal
did not burn hot enough
to turn my tears to mist
so i cried
cried more for the soot in my eyes
the stories those photographs held
could never blaze away
no matter how thick this smoke became
or how black the ash
i could not burn you away into the wind
the orange-red of the flames
could not mask the angel halo
that gleamed in your photographs
but still i tried to forget
what the fire could not
i realized that the photographs
would never be burned
as long as i still fought with
fire for you
how wrong i was
to think i could burn away
memories i didn’t let go.
