These places that I love

Are marked with distinct longing

I miss them -

old friends, former flings, twin flames -

Like forgotten habits

I can go a while without thinking of them

But then

I’m here

Or there

The place that used to be ours

And it’s like these parts of my brain reactivate

Leaving me with the flashbacks and the fallout

Of what once was ours

Today

I feel the yearning in my heart

The remembrance of how it used to be.

Today

I choose differently.

I wave to the sepia colored corners

Narrating the way we used to be.

I redirect my eyes to the roads we biked along and the places we grabbed food together.

I smile at the fuzzy shadows of us my mind conjures.

I daringly put my hand right through you

And the younger me.

The images disperse.

They’re not real anymore,

Just memories.

I take a deep breath,

And I send them on their way.

The memories.

The remembered.

Then,

I sit with myself for dinner.

She is real.

She is good company.

She’s not going anywhere.

I release the story in which I am a victim of my nostalgia.

I claim the narrative in which I am falling in love all over.

The places that were once the backdrop of my love stories and coming of age are now the forefront of my vision.

I am seeing them in a new light, in all of their beauty.

I am falling in love with the places I once allowed to house my heartache.

I am falling in love with the person I am today,

The one who is writing a new story.

And with that, I take my first bite.

It’s the second date I’ve brought myself on today.

I sit up a little taller.

Today is a good day.