The Past Poem by Langa Zanele

The past
It's time to cleanse the dust of the past
To remove the remains of old ruins
To let the sore wounds of so cold past bleed &heal

I have to stop looking back
And start looking forward
To leave the hurt in the cold past
The heaviness
And the guilt
That weighs me down
It's time to let the old rest in the past
To embrace the brand new present

I used to look in the past
Found myself diving in the dirt of old wounds
Between the skeletons of my old self that I buried
Back in the past
And the hurt jumps in awakening the sleeping pain
Seizing my heart of its joy
It's a scary place
Filled with loneliness
It's empty and cold
I keep looking around and I see nothing
But darkness, voices whispering
And I see no one
It's true when they say you can visit the past
But no one is there anymore
Only the memories
That brings nothing but pain
Maybe the past is supposed to stay in the past
Maybe I don't have to keep revisiting the past

When all that you need is infront of your eyes
You keep yearning for the dead memories
Knowing very well it's all gone
You keep hurting yourself
Taking yourself back to the past
And they're not there
Memories hurts they said
But it's better to put them at the back of your mind
And when you decide to visit the past
May it be for good memories only that'll bring joy

Truth is the memories never fade
They find their ways to sting you up
And you feel the thorns stinging your heart
You get hurt all over again
The pain of several months feels like that of today
And I keep saying to myself
Leave the past
And live in the present
But I keep doing the opposite
Maybe someday I'll finally find a way
To escape the cages of the past
I might flee away
And find my direction in the present
Till then I'll keep trying
And trying
Till I finally master the art of it.