When we become History,
what will be remembered?
Because we’ll surely soon be
what were once old faces in textbooks,
swimming with inaccessible stories
and un-relatable struggles;
teeming with moments untouched,
leaving legacies we still stomach:
skimmed surfaces of antiquity
without a mouth to speak;
moments that fell dull on dusty covers and dead on broken bookshelves.
When we become History,
what will be remembered?
When we become History,
when they ink select stories into immortality,
when the air we breathe
turns the word they read,
when today’s sky falls into tomorrow’s headline,
when the sifting and picking at our present reality
leaves none but easily swallowed summary;
as each day we lay the roots of trees,
time’s axe may cut down
the less desirable saplings,
sunshine may only beam
on the leaves most beautiful.
When we become History,
what will be remembered?
When we become History,
and they weigh our diary pages,
our text messages,
and our love letters,
against their cover stories,
their legislation,
and their death tolls,
some stories are sure to outweigh the invisible…
some voices are sure to outshine the silent.
So again,
I repeat
with fear for the future,
forgotten with blindness
to unwritten biographies,
with hope for healing eons of erasure:
When we become History,
what will be remembered?
Written by Poemandpage – an anonymous young poet who publishes work via Instagram.
This piece is from Corona Times: Words from the Pandemic – a free e-book of pandemic-inspired writing which will hopefully become an important artefact of this period, giving future readers insights into how COVID affected those of us who lived through it, beyond the mere statistics and news stories which will be preserved in popular media.
You can either download the PDF or read the book online. It’s also available (free) as e-book on the Google Play Store.
If you find it inspiring, or beneficial in any way, please share it with others. This is a completely independent, small-scale effort done without the help of professional publishers, and with no marketing budget nor any major promotional assistance in the mainstream media.
The contributors generously allowed their work to be used – with no compensation whatsoever – so please also check out their own books, websites, and efforts (which are all linked at the back of the book).
You may also leave a Goodreads review if you wish.
slip-sliding away..... 