The Box
Build a box.
Build it with faith in your memories.
Put all your memories of me inside it.
Keep it safe,
Keep it close and keep it dear forever.
Remember me, please remember me
For who I was
Not who I hoped to be.
Forget the promises I made and did not keep.
Put those away inside your box,
And keep them deep inside you,
In your heart or in your body warm.
Remember me,
Remember everything about me,
How I walked, how I talked,
A sample of my writing or my hair,
And how I wandered like a lostling in a world I never made.
Oh, won’t you please remember me
If only just one moment,
With a soft and gentle disposition In the sun or in the rain
In the spring or on your summer holiday.
While making love with other men
Or sitting by the Christmas fire with your lover
Remember me like myth and poetry,
And like rivers aflow with blood and dreams of love,
Like words that fell as crystal sugar from a million mouths,
Through fingertips and pens,
Like a reflection in a mirror.
I’ll be there somehow,
Walking as in sleep for ever,
Conjured into some form from your box of faith.
You go your way and I’ll go mine
And we won’t meet on this earth again.
I failed, I failed, I failed
And then I slipped away forever in accidental mediocrity.
So build a box
And put all your memories of me in side it.
Keep it safe and call it the place where faith and reason meet.
You will see my face in your dreams of memory
Like a child crying.
We’ll meet again somewhere but never touch.
My memory is yours to keep like a shadow or a reflection
Inside your box of faith.