I Remember...



A Poem



"Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation.... darkness wakes and stirs imagination..."



I remember...

As a child...

I remember the attic...

And the broken glass,

The kiss I was forbidden,

By my own mother.

And she hit me and slapped me,

When I asked why.





I remember...

As a boy...

I remember Giovanni,

And Isabella.

The terror when she tried to take away my shield,

The mask which hid me from the demons,

From the hatred of the world.

And when she fell to death,

To the arms of God above,

I fled away, far in to the night...





I remember...

As a man...

I remember Nadir,

And the Shah.

I can never forget the maze...

The maze of mirrors,

Which would cost so many lives...

If only there were another way to go....





I remember...

As the Phantom...

And Christine, how could I forget?

And the Vicomte, equally so...

I didn't have to free them,

She could have been mine...

Perhaps she could have loved me...

But she would never say it to me...

Not to me...





Today,

Another day, another hell...

Alone once again, with only music for company...

And when I don't hear music,

I feel my madness deepening,

As I wait for the day...

Oh that wonderful day!

When I can die, and rest...

Rest forever...

Rest and remember...

Memories are all I have left...





George Smillie