Beachy Memories

A poem for the places in your life that bring up long-buried memories when revisited

I bury my toes into the moist sand until they can no longer be seen I glance up The California sun blares down onto my Ray-ban aviator sunglasses Even that has memories

Everyone around is different The kids laughing and running fake frightened toward the frothy water The high schoolers blasting their music and scaling the dusty graffitied rocks The middle-aged couples posing for photos before being sprayed from the unpredictable Pacific Ocean But somehow, I still feel a twinge of familiarity

I look down at what I am wearing and I curse my own memory I have the kind of memory where I know all the times I’ve ever worn an outfit before I have the kind of memory that feels the emotions of the past powerfully I hate it

This place, once beautiful and a part of me No longer feels new or exciting It feels painful And dare I say boring

I lie back on the beach towel, the warmth lulling me to sleep And I think back to the strangeness of it all How a place Is only as powerful as what we remember of it