Once Upon a Time Poems

Memory Monster

On my forehead,
the gathered dust
of the years,
my face a furnace,
with shame's another outburst.
I’m late for one more appointment,
for not finding my keys,
buried somewhere in the wilderness
of my home.
Until I hear the click of my key-chain’s steel,
my nerves won’t stop thumping their feet.

My camouflage shirt,
loose over the hips,
envelopes the bumps of the body,
but does not cover up
for the mind
and the names
that play peek-a-boo
with my awareness.

I’m the feast of the memory monster,
salivating at its prey,
a demon with greedy eyes,
waits there to savor
the last morsels
of a failing brain,
until the time machine
plays its final trick.