EID 2007 Karak Jordan
The Faraway Family
What I have left in the past
now no longer exists,
as Time only goes forward.
What is in my past can not stay the same;
it no longer is what I remember
although, I remember it in this way.
The place has changed
the kids are now grown
my little nephews playing video games
are now doctors and married
living out of the country,
rarely returning.
My memory can try to fix them in place
timidly knocking on my door asking,
“Auntie do you have something delicious?”
I would welcome them in and display
my well stocked treat-shelves
where each could chose one.
Now they are performing appendectomies,
traveling or working abroad
putting too many hours into other things
maybe barely seeing their own families
That room where Auntie received them
has been repurposed for something else
and she goes away for too many years,
so that some of them barely remember her.
When she comes back into their lives
they all are happy to see her,
but they are no longer who they were
and she no longer looks like
what they remember.
They have had so many years without
a true shared history that the scenes from the past
feel more like a movie they all saw way back when.
It was a movie that left a good feeling
but it now feels more like make-believe,
an idyllic moment captured briefly
but still……
there are many hugs and kisses and joyous greetings;
everyone is so happy to see each other
once again.
Because, in the end.
the faraway family is outside of time and space;
it lives wholly, locked in our hearts
in an ever-changing state of mind.
Karima Hoisan
March 26, 2024
Costa Rica
Digital Rabbit Hole 