A Promise Kept

To go back, eyes open, mind connected to the past

Trying to listen to her voice/to remember/she has always been next to me/ just like I knew she would be/for a second I forget where I am or that it has been 5 long years since I last saw her

My eyes are open/staring at emptiness

I can hear her voice smiling with nostalgia of youthful days

While my mind wanders in that past moment until I can almost hold it in my breath

And I realize enough time has gone by that I, as she liked to call me/her alter-ego/ has always felt that same warm nostalgia creeping up unexpectedly

And I’m transported from the comfort of those weeknight-routines
memories in which I see her applying her night cream/ listening to the evening news/ discussing about a new political world crisis and an old family story…

…Carried to that afternoon in which the air was still and time went back and forth/confused/while she laid in bed silently, breathing heavily/ waiting for the moment in which it would all change/she waited until I could accept/until I could reassure/until I whispered at her ear

“I will always love you, you will always be next to me in everything I do, you have given me the greatest gift, please rest now”

I have now applied my night cream/listened to the evening news/discussed about the current crisis and reminisced about the past

Now longing to hear her voice/to share life/to live her unconditional love…

…And it all comes easily; her voice and her smile overrun my memories

And I can hear her say

“I am right here, I never really left”