Natalie Khazal - January 10, 2023
My memories are my favorite movies.
I play them when I’m down, in the theater inside my head.
I listen to the surround sound surge throughout my body.
I watch them through my eyes, the same eyes that saw them before.
But I warp them.
I make them happier than they were.
I make the sound crisper,
the screen clearer,
the movie brighter.
My memories are my favorite movies, but not before I alter them.
Not before I get my hands on the scary scenes and remove them,
Not before I change the outcomes, the errors, the guilt.
I throw out my bad movies, don’t you?
I make tragedy into action, shame into comedy, anger into romance.
I don’t waste time on empty plots or sad endings.
But sometimes I get stuck in a scene I intended to cut.
I don’t know how to deal with the bad,
All my movies have good endings,
I wish my memories did too.