Sometimes we don’t pay enough attention
to the little things.
I don’t know…
Perhaps I’m still grieving.
So much time has passed but maybe not enough for me.
I tend to get lost in the fade-
the sky-seas of yesterday,
stuck in the silhouettes of a daydream.
In hours’ exchange, I sit and watch memories take shape,
and then fade away.

Days slip by,
and I wonder how much of my life I’ve spent
looking backward.

I’ve just been so terribly late—
late to see the colors,
late to see the lights,
late to see all this beauty that has come
from all those sleepless nights.

Maybe I was never falling behind.
Maybe I was simply learning how to finally open my eyes.
There is so much more to life.

– I just never learned how to cope.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez