Memories

Natalie Khazal - January 10, 2023

My memories are my favorite movies.

I play them when I’m down, in the theater inside my head.

I listen to the surround sound surge throughout my body.

I watch them through my eyes, the same eyes that saw them before.

But I warp them.

I make them happier than they were.

I make the sound crisper,

the screen clearer,

the movie brighter.

My memories are my favorite movies, but not before I alter them.

Not before I get my hands on the scary scenes and remove them,

Not before I change the outcomes, the errors, the guilt.

I throw out my bad movies, don’t you?

I make tragedy into action, shame into comedy, anger into romance.

I don’t waste time on empty plots or sad endings.

But sometimes I get stuck in a scene I intended to cut.

I don’t know how to deal with the bad,

All my movies have good endings,

I wish my memories did too.