Shivering

It’s okay.

You’re shivering, oh memory.

It will get better

You’ve ventured out too early.

You’ve left your coat and hat behind.

You’re going where?

Oh, school days again, eh?

The always-angry schoolmaster.

He sent so many into a lot of wrong turns,

Meeting the war of gray days,

The ghost army assaulting your experience

Leaving you with nothing but cheap fast-food bargains for sustenance

The kind taking a lifetime to chew and digest.

So many times

The streets folded up on you

Leading you to another rented room

With only a view of an air shaft

And the next building’s brick wall

The rain

The snow

The wind

How often illness was the day’s ordeal

Bed ridden

Everyone else going to work

The deaf old man next door

Whose sighs and stumbling about

Became the dissonant sounds

Reminding you of life

He was so missed

Died and left future remembrances

In silence.

There would come the time

When the only sound heard

Would be the heartbeat of living

Holding on

Holding on

So much to attend to with those beats

Getting faint often

Thumping out of control other times

Experience…

You were fading

You were becoming anonymous

It could take months

For anyone to notice your absence

The chills were common

Making you pull whatever you had

Uptight to the chin

Lucky times

Over the head

Outside whatever room you occupied

It seemed to be forever damp

Rain

Snow

Over and over again

While you continued to chew

And try to digest what there was

Cracked walls

Ancient map-like water stains on the ceiling

Reminding you of the cities

The towns

The roads

Events of the past

Without color now

Without focus

Finally…

Time ceased at sundown

There was the grand finale of shivering for one last moment

Then…

Peace

Home

Existence would take up

With a new memory

Perhaps one with less shivering