• Sunburnt Heartaches

    From Chris Wood@3:633/280.2 to All on Thu Jun 26 05:22:32 2025

    Sunburnt heartaches

    This is the sort of heat
    I remember in another life
    over 300 miles
    and decades away.
    In foster care, I’d spent
    this sort of day
    outside where I’d play
    with water blasters and
    a cool green hose
    and at the end of the day
    My foster mother’s nephew and I
    I forgot his name
    would sit side by side
    playing video games
    Then, later
    when I came home
    and didn’t know
    to what extent my father
    and family had broke
    my brother and I
    would bike
    down to the beach
    getting something cool
    at the marina
    That was before chemicals altered
    everything that made him
    like they did to me
    before the collapse of a marriage
    we’d all seen coming
    and before everything
    that wore me down
    like rain and wind
    reshaping a skinny, straight-backed boy
    into someone who’s
    rough-weather, bent and worn.
    I know those days
    were worse, far worse
    than these are, now
    that’s just how
    nostalgia sings
    sweetened melodies
    played by memories
    through rose-tinting.
    Who wants to watch a movie
    that makes them feel hopeless?

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