Memories

It was awful; the memories still keep coming

They flow through my mind

Like water down a waterfall, fast and hard

They flow fast through my mind and hit me hard in the heart

I hear him calling, Anna, Anna, Anna

It’s like a repetitive beat of the inner city drum

The calling gets louder

I feel as if I’m there on that day, the day it all happened

The day that’s still stuck on my mind

Like a sticker stuck on a window

The kind of sticker that won’t come off

You peel and peel and scrub and scrub

And after all that peeling and scrubbing

It’s still there, still stuck

It will never come off and the memories will never fade away.

Jo Anne Kennedy Ó

May 1998