New Mexico

What was memory but tales
told by others that slowly 
disappeared with each mile, 
faster still with each year until

all that remained was a faded
few moments in the depths 
of my past, a man
with a pocket full of M&M’s,

myself running to meet him.
When I think of that brief life now,
this is the image that lingers still,
a tale that no one else has heard,

an echo of an echo
that lives inside my mind. It rises
at unexpected times,
when I eat M&M’s, when I see

images of a red desert earth,
when I rub his leather coin purse
between my fingers. An echo
that will last a lifetime.

Na/GloPoWriMo day 29 prompt: In your poem today, similarly compare your everyday present life with your past self, using specific details to conjure aspects of your past and present in the reader’s mind.