Things that recall you

There are things you will remember
For always
Until your time expires
Or some wretched disease
Steals
Those precious fragments
From your mind

The name of your fifth-grade teacher
The phone number of your grandmother who has been gone for thirty years
The street address of the house you lived in when you were three

These things you may recall

And then

There are things that will recall you
Teleport you
Back

In an instant

And you smell the chalk dust as you clean the eraser in first grade

You hear the ocean as you hold hands at night, legs hanging off a gulf balcony
You taste her lips in an eleventh-grade hallway, when kissing was everything
You see your mother when she was younger, and years were longer
You feel the butterflies the first time you saw your wife
The sense of finally being home found in that first embrace

It's a song that brings back the finality of driving away
From something, someone, somewhere
And knowing you would never be there again

The perfume that lingered in the blankets

For weeks after she left

That stretch of 434 where the car flipped onto its side
The coolness of the April night
As you climbed out and walked four miles

Or a movie they play every goddamned December
And you watch it every year
No matter how much it makes you miss them

The number of your tears

Because in the deluge
You find 
A sliver of a smile

You recollect the good, before the bad
The love, before the loss

The blue hot flame, before the cold, empty ashes

You remember the faith, before the doubt
The hope, before the hopelessness
All the life lived... before the death

Yes, there are things your mind may remember

But these

These are the things
Your heart
Cannot forget

The things that recall you

Beckoning you to return
These are the memories that prove

You didn't simply exist
You were alive

Goosebumps

Slow-to-heal scars
Impromptu road trips
Al fresco dinners in new towns
Scared to death
Make it up as you go
Laugh until you cry
And cry until the tears run dry
Alive!

Warning:

These memories
They will steal your breath

And it all happens at lightspeed
(The teleporting, and the life.)