Five Minutes

[thegeekgene]

Title: Five Minutes
Genre: poetry
Word Count: 261
Notes: About trauma.



It's a five minute walk from here to the library.
I store that time in my brain.
It used to be storage space
for introspection and memories.
But these days, it's just time;
marked and measured;
temembered but never revisited.
Not without a friend at my side
or a phone at my ear,
a confidante comforting on the other end.

Because five minutes can make memories that won't be forgotten
or five minutes can break things that can't be remade;
like an ancient transcription
an a language long-dead
or maybe a person
who hasn't yet lived.
Who's shedding her shyness
and dropping sincerity from self-deprecation
and learning to be
the person she knew she was meant to be.
Those five minutes once unmade everything
once unmade me
in a five-minute eternity
that stretched
and became
six days in a hospital
and seven months waiting for a trial that never came
and seventeen more on a couch in a room with a doctor devoted to decoding my brain
and reaching out for today
for here and for now
for me
just finding my feet
just learning to stand
still staying in on the weekend.
Getting better, but doing all my reading at home.

My roommates are loud
and this flat's full of distractions
and I don't get as much done as I used to
and my therapist thinks that I should be getting out more.
But the last thing I need is more time to think
and it's a five minute walk from here to the library.