I don't forget

Written Oct 2025
Edited Nov 2025
Posted April 2026

Sometimes I remember that people forget.
  And I mourn. For them. And for me.
  Because I don't. I don't forget.
  I am the archive of everyone I've met;
  Every piece is important to me.
  Usually in good ways.
  But sometimes in bad.

You're still in that house in the woods,
  that craft beer place before craft beer was cool,
  that SCIF in the basement,
  that office where we worked doubles without complaint.
  You live in those places for me.
  But I vanished from your life,
  and your present continued.

Do you remember me?
  Do you remember the meals,
  the tears,
  the stories,
  the laughs we shared?
  Do you remember me there?

Do you know the ways you changed me?
  Do you remember what you taught me?
  Have you forgotten me?

You were important to me.
  Not just then, but still now.
  I don't forget.

If you want to be friends again,

 the door remains unlocked:

 I'm still here.