Memories

 

Countless memories

are stored in your brain.

Sometimes they rise up

again and again.

Sometimes they just stay

deep in the fleshy darkness.

 

Eventually you yourself

become only a memory

that either rises up

again and again

or remains deep

in the brain of another.

 

Only after everyone

who ever remembered you

is gone for good and all

does the terrible insanity

that once bore your name

achieve a true oblivion.

 

Good-bye.

 

Copyright Thomas Ligotti

This title originally appeared in Death Poems.

 

Thomas Ligotti is one of the foremost contemporary authors of supernatural horror literature. His work is noted by critics for its display of an exceptionally grotesque imagination and richly evocative language. In his stories, Ligotti has followed a literary tradition that began with Edgar Allan Poe, portraying characters that are outside of anything that might be called normal life, depicting strange locales far off the beaten track, and rendering a grim vision of human existence. For more information on his work please see: http://www.ligotti.net/