It's been the coldest winter

since 1941

I've crawled through those past memories in my searches

for your past life

that was lost when they came to take you back to the fires

And there it is, among the elderly documents of your endless ruins

the fading album I had been searching for

since 1941

It was so long ago

that the pictures were taken

the pictures of the aftermath

of the friends made

and of the destruction of everything

when the bomb was dropped

I drop it alongside all the other artifacts

of a past

that I know you had so many tales to tell about

if only you hadn't been taken

before I my recollection had progressed

And there you are

surrounded in a deep veiled frame

a younger you

dressed in dull uniform and prepared for the long days ahead

since 1941

so much time has passed

yet I remember things that happened a year ago

and they are perceived as yesterday

But yesterday's long past

since 1941