You probably forgot
that late January or February
a year or ten or a century ago
Dream-like memory
a bad one
It’s time to go –You dressed up (for me? maybe)
good-looking coat & hat
That winter coat we bought one summer
purchased never worn before
You knew I liked it
I wondered if you listened
if my words were spoken
Was I confused by chaos imminent change?
Voice & sound remained absent
There was snow on the ground
I knew the truth
we were not together anymore
A night with friends
not-a-date just together somehow
I remember holding this same letter (a weird object)
questioning its authenticity
Here I am writing it now
feeling stuck in an anticausal reality
— your possible future
Should I tell you about the sky of your tomorrow?
Shall you be protected from tears to come? (Will the joy still follow?)
Here I am thinking of me thinking of you
with the power to change it all to open the alternative path (to write a Pandora letter)
Though I can I won’t
(I wonder how it started to exist in the first place) (Was it when I read it first as you are reading it then?) (Or when I wrote it as I am writing it now?) (Was I joking when I first wrote I remember holding this same letter)
I want you to read the words in my memory
About today
The moon still shines at night
You are happy
The path is worth walking once more & again
I would not exchange any tear
a single laugh
or a casual jump
Here’s your homework
Can you walk the same path and be as happy as I am?
If so burn this letter the night I burnt it so I can get to write it today
Here’s a clue
If your future can be the same as mine
you walked to the balcony and looked at the stars
right after reading my question about tomorrow’s sky
Here’s the catch
Can you memorize these words?
Do you think I did?
Thinking of me thinking of you
I
_____Adriana Citlali
XIX-II-MMXV
Written for Poetics @dVerse.
Have you ever imagined receiving a letter or poem from your future self?
