A One-Way Reminder

See that bookcase?

Does that remind you of me?

It reminds me of you

How we spent eight Sunday afternoons
Attempting to put it together
Finally giving up
And saying we were okay
With a half-completed bookcase

We said that when a book falls off
That's how you know
It's time to read it

We laughed about it
We laughed a lot

But does it remind you of me?

Or is it a one-way reminder?

Does Tarragon Street remind you of me?
Of our first apartment
Or our last argument
The rent that never got paid
Or how many times our neighbors got laid
While we listened giggling
Like kids

Does Halloween make you think of me
With my football jersey
Hanging off
My rather slender frame

Do board games and rain storms
And college dorms
And college kids
And purple birthday cake frosting
And bad baked brownies
And half-baked brownies
And dinners at restaurants on piers
And Alaskan King Crab
And slabs of ice falling off porches
And torch songs in empty hotel ballrooms
And beauty...

Does all that remind you of me?

Or is it just me

All one-way reminders

Reminding me
That I should be
Free and clear
From all the dear things
That are sincerely preventing me
From being something other
Than a memory holder

Could that be?

Or are there still things out there
That remind you of me?