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.