Reunion
Who are these many faces I see today?
I don’t remember, I don’t recognize
For years, I’ve not seen them
Decades even, scarred by time
I don’t know them
Buried in memory
I don’t see them
As they are today
Children, now grown
I can’t place the names
To the faces I’ve never seen before
They were young then,
Now they’ve grown
Now adults with tortured features
Wracked by labor
And by cruel fate
My aunts and uncles much older
Like my grandparents
Decades ago
Ravaged by the years
But grasping dignity
From the wreckage of time
I remember the twinkling of the eyes
The wry smiles, I still see them
--
But after a while, all this is forgotten
The memories return
Rich and treasured
From the recesses of my fragile brain
I thought they were lost
But retrieval comes easy
With the prodding of reunion
And seeing my family once again