Reminder and Other Poems

By Robin Bass

Reminder

I know the pain will dissipate.

This day will become yesterday,
to months ago,
& years ago,
until finally
it is simply
back then.

What was a mountain,
is now a memory for safekeeping.

For it is that time you made it through,
when you thought
you couldn’t.

Release

There was a laugh that surprised us all.

Becoming and booming, falling and rising
against the silence, crumbling it
like the waves we were once caught under.

At first I resisted.
Then, I laughed too.

A devious squall emerged,
quite unlike me,
truly,
bubbling from a place I had not known I hosted,
and it joined the cacophony
reviving stoic walls.

It returned to me with every bellow.
Each one shaking my frame
until I tumbled in foundation.

I laughed at the pain,
& everything that had happened.

The anguish.
The tragedy.
& all the days I claimed I could not.

More pain. More tragedy.
I laughed despite it all.

I laughed because I was still here
& it was not.
because there was an absurdity
to it all.

I howled, guffawed, giggled
at all the nights that had broken me
until the air grew fresh to fettered lungs.

I held the world to my gaze, shed the torment
in tears, & felt
how they wished to be relinquished.

We laughed until the silence overcame us,
& the peace had returned.

Revelation

There are certain moments
when your soul remembers
what it is here for.

The prison built in your head
reveals it is only paper,
the architect knows its exits best.

& my paper cuts filled hands
always need to be working.

Climbing out of an abyss takes time.

But one day you look back,
& wonder at far you've come.

The echoes of your laughter
bounce off the rock bottom,
you swore had no end.


The encouragements of love
remind you to keep climbing
With a newfound strength,
& a face to the sun.

Traces of a familiar smile
teach you a habit never forgotten.

Some ghosts can do things other than haunt.