Footsteps in the Woodwork
Long after the wind has carried my scent from this place, I shall remain.
The atomic residue of my passing will sink into the concrete as fossilized DNA, and the surface ever altered by my treading.
When all who ever knew of my breaths have ceased to breathe, I shall remain.
A pocket of soil shall keep the rubber remnants of my sole long after the rains fall and the clouds collide.
The trees shall remember my being here.
Forget your precious footsteps in the sand, your fear of impermanence as you witness waves whisking your life away.
These branches shall recall each time I passed beneath them, leash in hand.
They will remember those nights, midnight and beyond, as we passed beneath them in a shiver, a silence, and a burning. They’ll ruminate over the vapor escaping our lips and the endless soliloquies I delivered there.
When the houses have crumbled and shattered, the foundations unstable, I shall remain. A tree lives throughout the ages, and a tree shall not forget.
The trees will recall the bond – the unspoken understanding of the two. They will reminisce about the unfailing end to our trip – the inevitable race home. The race she always won as I exploited her energy to pull me up the hill.
They will forever see the child who took her puppy out before school everyday, the tortured adolescent who walked her dog before the carpool came calling.
They shall not forget the nights, clouded with tears, that I fought my demons alongside her, as she silently supported my painful fight – feigning indifference as she smelled the freshly dewed grass when truly her soul was touching mine.
The trees shall remember my being here, when my being here is no longer remembered.
The trees will always know me as a half of a whole, as one of two. They will cherish the memory of the girl and her companion…the girl who felt the drama of the wind in her hair and took to the skies for response to her rapture. The girl who admired the moon, swore she saw signs in the stars, believed she could sway the heavens.
Long after the world has turned and a new era has risen, long beyond when the tides of change have erased this moment from existence – I shall remain. We shall remain.
For the trees shall remember our being here.