Remember, Remember Not

Remember the sky even though

it won’t remember you.

 

Know the constellations’ tales

even as they know not yours.

 

Remember the moon’s pull

despite its denying your shadow.

 

Remember the sun, the dawn even

as its novas your sight,

singes your memories

in forgetfulness, grief and time.

 

Remember the sunset,

that yields to night

that hardly embraces you.

 

Remember not your birth,

the maternal pains,

the gasps to your first breath,

the silent cursing of your first form.

 

Remember not your life’s mistakes,

your mother’s and hers.

 

Disperse them in the wind,

awaiting angels to hurl

them into the sun.

 

Remember not

your father’s indifference,

the times he chose

not to be a part of your life.

 

Remember the earth in all its colors

even as  it entombs everything.

that skins it.

 

Remember every plant, animal eaten;

the fallen tree that is your house frame

and every book you have read-

 

for their death and your life

is the child of every poem written

and consumed in the soul.

 

Remember the howl of the wind

in its indifference,

the universe’s deafness

that seems not to listen

or know you.

 

Remember that language,

your scream is the retort

to the universe’s grudge.

 

Shout “I remember”

even as it whispers

“I remember you not.”