Poetry: "In Your Memory"

“You may never remember but I will never forget.”  

To the weekday mornings , where the old CD player sat playing Luther Vandross albums that seemed to be on an endless loop.  As my brother and I raced around the cold hardwood floors in our underwear with ashy knees. Those days we put on concerts and held pretend “church” to  videotapes of the Canton Spirituals and the Williams Brothers. How you would get a kick out of us using canes as microphones.

To the weekday afternoons, when we came home from school to a house filled with the smell of sweet pound cakes. Our dirty fingers fought against one another to scrape the bowls for the leftover batter.

To Saturdays spent together on the wooden chair with my stomach to the sink  as I helped you “clean” fish. Scale flakes flying all around us and hours you later spent digging them out of my hair.

To Sunday’s that you made for family. The white batter on your chocolate fingers.  The smell of fried chicken and okra filling the entire block. Pure joy in your eyes as you danced across the kitchen feeding all and any who would come in.  They were all “Mom-mom’s kids” no matter what age, no matter what color.

To the time that was stolen from us… all the missed birthdays, countless boy dramas and family disputes you weren’t there to resolve.

To the occasional one-sided holiday conversations that grew more dull, less frequent, until no conversation at all. To watch your light fade, the essence of who you are disappear, the memory only surviving those who knew you.

To the disease that took everything away from you -  that took you away from us… away from me. To milestones you lived through but you would never remember.  

To the love you leave behind in hearts of those who remember you and the history you passed on that forever memorializes your contributions to who I am today.