Memoria by Madison Stone

please tell me I am good

gather up my soft and

scattered pieces and

rebuild me in your image

please tell me I am easy to love

please tell me I take up space like a coat rack

please tell me how this house will unravel when I am gone

how the floorboards will pry themselves loose and

the paint will bubble and

peel off in flower-petal flecks

of ash

the sun is down and I am here dressed

in white linen and

puffy sleeves, please

don’t throw a sheet over my head and call me a ghost

please know that I am still alive

please tell me that I am still alive

my body is not a temple my body is

a haunted house, please

haunt me, please

linger in my periphery, please

walk these halls of mine barefoot and bathed

in moonlight, please

don’t leave me vacant holding this silence in the hollow of my chest, please-

please think of me when I’m not there

please leave a spot for me at the breakfast table

please do not consider me gone

please tell me I am here again and

again and

again.