April PAD 5: Before My Time

WRITING MEMOIRS

like little jenga bricks,
i stacked the contents
of my life in a vertical
tower:
journal of sorrow,
upon diary of hope.

i set my heart to task
and watched while the cursor
blinked, leading my past
into neat lines of prose.

memories slipped
out of order,
rearranging themselves
in a chronology
that only made sense
if i was never alive.

more glorious was my tale
more laudable my achievements
more fiction entered my truth
and remembering
was like sifting sand through
an open palm.

i edited the caricature
and allowed dust to handle
the printed pages,
but when the truth
reassembled itself,
the cure for dishonesty
expired before my time.

Prompt: Write a poem about something before your time
Poetic Asides Community

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While preparing for a genre workshop at my writing/critique group, I was inspired by a tangent and wrote this little piece. I am so glad to be going some creative writing for a change. Quality matters to me, but not as much as the fun of creating something new every day. I hadn't written anything "fun" in months. This challenge is really helping me get my artistry back in gear.