(no subject)

[apiphile]

Against Archives

You say you want the historians
to speak of you as you are.

I don't want them to hear a word of me;
not one letter of my name should remain
when the breath has left my body for the last time.

Erase all references to any detail by which I may be identified;
but leave the footprints I have left in the lives of others.

No extant works. No lingering words. Holes pepper the record
with only a suggestion that someone once was here.

And these cigarette-burn black holes in the memory,
my reality-distorting absence

Will instead force these future historians to confront,
all the things that have fallen absent and forgotten from their own lives.

You cannot hold onto the seconds as they fall away;
you cannot bring the dead back to life by putting
your words in their mouth.

Give me finality. Give me obscurity. Give the historians an eternal mystery.

Let's wipe ourselves off the map.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

And these cigarette-burn black holes in the memory,

I like the imagery here

[rionaleonhart]

I love this piece, especially the last few lines. 'you cannot bring the dead back to life by putting/your words in their mouth' really stands out to me.

[apiphile]

Thank you!