Sunday, October 23, 2016

Photographs And Memories

Sad Song Challenge
Title: Photographs and Memories
By: Snarks
OCs: Unnamed couple



Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these
To remember you


Thanksgiving is done.  Christmas is coming up fast.  Too fast.  It's been 
a year now that I've been without you.  A year alone in our bed, in our 
house, our home that we built together.  Your shirts are still hanging in 
the closet.  When I walk into the house I still smell your cologne.  
It's stronger today for some reason.

I've decided that today is the day I go through the house and box up 
your stuff.  I know.  I know.  I've tried to do it before and I didn't 
get far.  I got lost in the memories and ended putting everything back where 
I found it.  But today is the day I finally get the job done.

I sit here wearing that silly straw boater you bought at Gas Light Village.  
I swear I can feel you sitting beside me.  Look, here's that bit of slag 
we picked up on the shore in Maine, the one that's shaped like a turtle.  Ok, 
I know, you don't see it but if you turn it this way and look at it in 
a certain light... there, you can just see the head... and the tail 
there.  See?  He's looking back over his shoulder.  Yeah, I knew you'd see 
it if you looked closely enough.

Well, let's check out the first box.  Ah!  My back muscles are pulling!  
Bad angle to try to pull that heavy box in.  I'm just getting too old 
for this.  Neither of us is as young as we once were... I'm not as young as 
I used to be.  God, I miss you.

What's this?  You actually kept this?  You were so angry when I washed your 
new white shirt with the red socks and turned it pink, and then you go and 
save it?  Yeah, I remember.  You turned my backside the same shade of pink 
as the shirt after that. You never wore it after that, but you saved it?  
Even now you can still make me laugh when it's the last thing I want to do.

Hey, wait. There's something in the pocket here.  Wow, the picture of us on 
the boardwalk in Salt Lake City.  God it was cold that day!  Honestly, 
whose idea was it to walk on the beach at sunrise in the middle of 
December?  And you had to chase the guy who took the picture because he 
ran away with the camera, remember?

Your jacket.  It still smells like your pipe tobacco.  How long has it 
been since you stopped smoking that thing and this jacket still smells 
like it.  Boswell's Best, yeah, that's what it was called.  I used to love 
to hug you when you wore this jacket.  I'd just inhale and get lost in 
the scent as you wrapped your arms around me and held me closer.

Sometimes I felt as though I'd just melt right into you and we could stay 
that way forever.  God, I miss you so much.

This old sweater?  We bought this years ago!  What were we, twenty?  
Twenty five?  And you still have it?  Look at the cuffs!  They look like 
a rabid dog was chewing on them.  I'm feeling a little chilly, you won't 
mind if I wrap this around my shoulders, do you?  Put it on?  Yeah, that 
makes more sense.  Wow, what were we thinking when we bought 
this thing?  Those colors!  But it was thick and warm, and I guess this 
was the 'in' style 40 years ago, so who can really blame us, right?

Memories that come at night
Take me to another time
Back to a happier day
When I called you mine

I dreamed of you again last night.  We were back in the woods, setting 
up camp.  I was trying to start a fire with damp, green wood.  You knew 
it wouldn't work but you just figured if I kept trying I'd eventually get the
hint... do you remember that?  

It started to rain and we ran into the tent only to find it had sprung a leak.  
We ended up spending the night in the back seat of the car.  Thank God it 
was a big car, huh?  And thank God we were far enough away from other 
campers and that the storm was loud enough to drown us out.

And the next morning, when I took the charcoal and portable grill out of 
the trunk you didn't know whether to be mad at me for struggling 
with the wood fire, or laugh.  Lucky for me you settled for laughing. Too 
many branches available and I really wasn't in the mood to cut a switch.

I'm not getting anywhere with this box, hon.  I'm going to go upstairs and 
see what I can get accomplished up there for now.  I'll get back to this later.

Whoops, didn't make the bed this morning.  I guess I was distracted, let 
me take care of that now.  I remember how worked up you used to get when 
I didn't straighten the bed out in the morning.  Ok, ok, not worked 
up, necessarily... more like mildly annoyed, is that better?

There.  Now that it's straightened out I can sit on it and rumple it up 
again.  So tell me what was the point of straightening it out in the 
first place?  Ah well.  Let's see what we have here.

A box of photographs?  Look at us!  How old were we here?  Oh, you 
didn't.  Tell me I just need to put my glasses on and that you're not 
actually holding up 'bunny ears' behind my head in this one.  Why didn't I 
ever notice that before?  Where was this taken, do you remember? Look on 
the back?  Well that makes too much sense!  Yellowstone National Park.  
Heh, yeah, we kept annoying the people next to us by doing our Yogi and 
Boo Boo imitations.

Here we are in Papohaku Beach Park.  I got the worst sunburn that day.  
You didn't want to say I told you so but you didn't want to rub it in.  No 
pun intended.

Remember how we laid there that night because I couldn't sleep, and we 
talked about where we'd like to go next?  I remember Scotland came up, 
and Italy.  You really wanted to drive on the 'wrong' side of the street, 
just once.  We never did manage to do that, did we?

I'm a little fatigued suddenly.  I'm just going to put these away for now 
and take a nap, now that I've messed the bed up again, right?  I promise 
I'll finish this later.  Yeah, later.

Photographs and memories
All the love you gave to me
Somehow it just can't be true
That's all I've left of you




Photographs And Memories 
Songwriter: Jim Croce

Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these
To remember you

Memories that come at night
Take me to another time
Back to a happier day
When I called you mine

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks
Oh, how I loved you then

Summer skies and lullabies
Nights we couldn't say goodbye
And of all of the things that we knew
Not a dream survived

Photographs and memories
All the love you gave to me
Somehow it just can't be true
That's all I've left of you

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks

Oh, how I loved you then

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