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Language:
English
Series:
Part 10 of Poems of Power
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Published:
2025-06-02
Completed:
2025-06-02
Words:
765
Chapters:
2/2
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9
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12
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And you’re wrapped in my memory like chains

Summary:

A poem exploring how two immortals might remember those important moments during their cosmic connection.

Notes:

For the prompt "Memory" over on Bluesky.

So I wrote Version 1 of this poem, and then wasn't happy with it, so I wrote Version 2. Then I couldn't decide which one to post so after sharing them with a few people, I decided to share them both.

HAVE ALL THE CAKE EVERYONE.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Version 1

Chapter Text

Memory is a funny thing, even for immortals.

Days, centuries, bleed together,

A dull blur, until nothing is distinct anymore

And the only reminder of time passing seems

To be the changing position of the river

As it carves a new course across the land

Or wears the mountain down.

 

But sometimes, other days, other events,

Will be seared into the memory,

Wrapped within it so tightly, as if held by chains,

That they will never ever leave.

 

They met on the open sea, as the flowing tides of fate brought them together.

He will remember her voice calling to the tiny raft adrift,

Did he recognise it perhaps, even then?

And she will remember being plunged into the deep, and sinking down

Before he dived beneath the waves to save her.

 

When thinking of the island, he will remember her anger in the forge,

Spitting bitterness at those who conspired to

Send her into exile, a tempest driven spirit who could not stop,

He felt it all so clearly, how they could be the same,

Pushing each other to heights no one else could fathom.

 

He will also remember the hours of toil and sweat,

The sound of metal loud in his ears to make her armour,

And when she stepped onto the ship, shining in silver splendour,

Her hair as golden as the light from the Two Trees,

She grasped his arm, and he thought her radiance would never leave him.

She will remember the soft smile of the lost King, standing

Tall and proud, with auburn hair, her heart reignited with hope and fire.

 

They will both remember sitting on a log in the forest, the setting the colour of his eyes,

The stillness post battle at odds with the charging horses and pounding pulses,

Now, sat side by side, in a pause only a few minutes, but lasted much longer,

Feeling a connection beyond any they had known before or since.

 

She will remember when the mountain exploded,

His name ripped from her lips in terror as the

World burned before everything was ash.

 

They will both remember the moment by the river,

A scroll of linages long dead so there was no king,

Her heart dropped and his face shifted as every deception came undone,

But still he offered her a place at his side, and was met with the gentle caress

Of a dagger across this throat.

 

He will remember a black spiked crown in a frozen wasteland,

Being unmade in a frenzy of pain and brutal betrayal,

While she will remember the same crown, this time in his hands,

Piercing her flesh, shadows seeping into the edge of her soul.

So many shared agonies and now blood bound,

When the battle’s lost and won, a fall was the only way out.

 

All of these are only memories now,

The kind you want to swallow down and never remember again,

But at the same time, they end up being the ones you replay over

And over in your mind in all the quiet moments when

Darkness pulls at your spirit, and you wonder if you did the right thing

At all.

Chapter 2: Version 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Memory is a funny thing, even for immortals.

 

Days, centuries, can still bleed together,

A dull blur, until nothing is distinct anymore

And the only reminder of time passing seems

To be the changing position of the river

As it carves a new course across the land

Or wears the mountain down.

 

But sometimes, other days, other events,

Will be seared into the memory,

Wrapped within it so tightly, as if held by chains,

That they will never ever leave.

 

Like her voice calling out across the sea

A strange siren’s call in a twist of fate,

 

Like a man seated on a log with eyes

The same colour as the surrounding forest

As she said I felt it too

 

Like a moment by a river when scroll uncovered the truth

And she caressed his throat with a knife as secrets

Were revealed and deceptions were undone,

 

Like a crown piercing flesh, and a fall from a cliff side

Both a battle lost and a battle won,

 

Knowing it will all lead to a

A tower and a mirror

 

All of these are only memories now,

The kind you want to swallow down

And never remember again,

But at the same time,

They end up being the ones you replay over

And over In your mind in all the quiet moments when

Darkness pulls at your spirit,

And you wonder if you did the right thing

At all.

Notes:

Let me know which Version you prefer in the comments! Or if you like them both 😊

Notes:

Title comes from the song "Wrapped in My Memory" by Shawn Smith

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