The Detours of the Mind

A Note To Survivors

The following may be triggering for survivors.

If you relate to this piece, I am so sorry.

If you have moments that you wish more than anything you could forget, moments that you almost let slip away but then they come crashing back over you, I am sorry.

If you are afraid of your past, the present, those around you, the future, I am sorry.

If you were young and innocent and big-eyed and in like (that you thought was love), I am sorry.

If you trusted and if your faith was broken, I am sorry.

Detour Ahead
The laundry was piled
Past my forehead
On your dining room table.
You put a movie about
A stupid horse on TV
While we sat on your little sisters
Twin sized bed, too close
To be comfortable, silence.

He saw the clouds tumble
Over my face when I remembered
The sound of the washing machine
Mixed with the horse’s hooves.
I was reading some poem
That mentioned laundry,
And I know my memories should be
Squeaky clean by now
But somehow one line in a book
Transported me to a house
That had long been in a black hole -
How do you fold laundry
In space?