Filing Cabinets

Memories become dusty

documents stored in a filing cabinet.

We tuck them away. Some

are pushed so far back,

they never see the light of day.

Everyone and everything we

know resides in storage. It can

be hard to siphon through

a lifetime of experiences.

Without knowing, we subconsciously

reach in the filing cabinet

and pull out a document:

a memory once hidden.

We read dialogue of characters

from our extensive past.

We remember stories from

a new point of view. We examine

images of faces: people posing

in familiar places. We try to

sharpen the blurry image.

We look at school photos

that used to hang on our

parent’s fridge. We flip through

folders and find letters we used

to write . It takes me back

to when I colored outside

the lines. I open the bottom

drawer and a flurry of flashbacks

bounce inside my head.

I recall my past from time to time. I close

my eyes, and envision the circle of life.

My mind’s eye dives deeper inside

archives. I pull files out

at random. I take one out,

put it back. Repeat. I close the drawer,

ending my stroll down memory

lane. Through my journey,

I relived joy, sadness, anger, pleasure,

and pain. It’s good to reminisce.

It allows me to float through

time and space: a place I can

revisit. If I ever forget

my past, there’s a filing cabinet I can

always open. Inside those drawers,

are closed doors that are now locked.

If I lose the key, all I have to do is knock.