Why Do I Recall Everything She Loved? Poem by Roger Gerald Hicks

As I fold sheets,
I'll visualize a freeway accident
so I won't remember
we folded sheets together,

discard the shirts one-by-one
she bought
when her heart overflowed
with tenderness.

As for the sunflower seeds
she was so eager to plant
in earth I never cleared for her?
I'll toss them too!

Laughter rang through the house
while she was here
(even when she was gone):
but the laughter has faded
with memories
of what we bickered about.

Whatam I to do with candles she lit
to permeate the air with incense?
Re-light them and imbue the rooms
with heart-incinerating memories?

And the music that bursts from the stereo
without warning;
tunes she hummed, melodies she strummed.
What?
Destroy the stereo?Pierce my eardrums?

How can I stumble through life
without glimpsing her silhouette disappearing
around corners?
Without recollecting
the bent of her vision?

How can I rest between sheets we shared
while she's everywhere-

yet gone, gone, gone.