Cobwebs

Spending these hours before the world awakens
flipping over hour glasses
turning back ticking clocks
dusting off forgotten calendars
rewinding lost films
and rereading previous chapters
new eyes staring at old pictures
new memories added to the old
new perspectives take on challenges of the past
but the dust makes me itch
and the cobwebs are closing in
as I fall through the moldy floors
of the attic of my mind
and the walls sag in around me
weighted down by the pictured memories
and tomes of histories
of all the Allisons that once were
but are no more
and all the ghosts chase me out the door
and down the creaking stairs
back to reality
back to the present
with my head so full of the thens
that I barely notice the nows
but suddenly I look around and realize
that this is all that matters
and I almost missed it...

so I locked the door to the musty room
of lost friends and sad days
and angry messages and unfortunate regrets
and unanswered questions and silly fights
and left the key behind
to be hidden under the piles of debris
and lost in the folds of my ever-working mind
and stepped out with a clear head for the first time in a long while