I Had a Life

I had a life I carved on stone
Meticulously chiseled into granite
Word by word
Chapter by chapter
Volume by volume
A record of a life that I lived
That would live beyond me
In my children
In memories
In characters
In character

He had a life
Written on many sheets
Tucked away deep in pockets in closets in locked houses
Stories I never heard
Stories he never told
Or told in third person to the faceless

Though he had stories for me

Let the pages burn and the ash return to the earth
Let the stones crumble and the remains build a new foundation
Let the fairy tales become feathers on the pysche tempest
Fluttering memories carried from a bedtime story long ago
The mind has long since forgotten the girl and the woods and the cabin
But remembers the wolf