A Remembrance Of Forgetting

• Ella Mitlan, Grade 11, Cabra Dominican College
• Poetry
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'National Treasures 2022' competition

Do you remember?
The days we hid in your room, letting candlelight burn memory into our eyes,
Because the pain hurt so much less when we were silent?
But tell me, do you remember?
All the time wasted screaming at the universe believing it owed us the world,
As if it were not merely enough to keep us alive?
Now tell me, do you remember?
Those weeks we spent running, recklessly,
Because it was far easier to run from one another than towards?
I remember,
Sometimes it’s so bright, so clear in my mind.
Other times I can hardly bear to pull together the letters in your name,
Watching myself from the outside, chest heaving in rhythm with my thoughts,
Because we can’t go back.
And in some ways, this is the silver lining,
that we’re not anchored here anymore.