Memories That Don'T Last Poem by Wensday Wood

I’m standing on the street
Talking laughing and hanging out
With all my friends

A shadow comes across us
And we turn to see
Our guest greeting us

She is an old woman who
Is worn out and old looking
Lost with a wet map

Her mouth moves and sound
Comes out but the
Words make no sense

That is she saying? I
Can’t understand this
Foreign tongue she speaks

I tell her we do
Not understand what she
Is saying at all

She stops for a second
And keeps talking puzzling
us even further

We walk away without a backwards
Glance not even feeling pity
Or sorry for her

The sun sets and hone
Is my destination
For the time being

Walking in I lay on
The couch just
Channel flipping through

The news reports of an old
Woman being hit by a car
And killed instantly

The news moves to a new
Camera to get a look
At the old lady
The lifeless corpse is covered
But not fast enough
To cover the face

It was the same old
Lady from today except
Cold and in shock

I feel guilt crawling all over
My skin and pain for not
Helping the strange lady today

She was most likely lost
Who needed to get somewhere?
And get her map wet

She had trouble since her probably
Didn’t read or speak English and only
Her own language foreign to us

The tears gush out become
They can be stopped and
Go all over but the guilt is gone

It all comes back no
Longer the feel of pity
Or any emotion

I realize simply I don’t really
Care at all and there is no
Use crying over spilled soymilk

We are all like this
Today so why should I be
The one to start caring again?

I put myself together and
Plop back on to the couch
While grabbing the remote

I start channel surfing
And soon forgetting
All that happened today
Forever