won't let me go...Never a day

goes by that some memory

does not return, unbidden,

unwanted...Waiting for an

unguarded moment to slither

stealthily into my consciousness

and coil there...smug, beady-

eyed, coolly triumphant in

all its odiousness. Knowing

that the blink of an eye or an

angry headshake will again

banish it to the darkness

whence it came, but also

knowing that it can return

at any moment my mind is

idle...any moment now.

© 30 June 2002 Thurman P. Woodfork