Television Memories
Like electricity,
remembrance flows right through me.
An imagined current
Of realistic, sharp jolts.
The past runs through an enclosed wire.
By choice, my own desire
I stick my fingers into the outlet
And play with searing fire.
In reminiscing
I connect my brain to the reruns of life.
Programs of the past illuminate the blank screen.
At times I hold the remote,
The control
To switch the channels of the mind.
Blurry images focus
Into raw emotion.
But at times,
Memory clicks on automatically.
The viewer can no longer sit, detached.
The power of reminder revives
The once thought dead screen.
It turns on repressed pictures
I never cared to see.
Clarity puts on a new show ---
Dotted images appear static
Imagined so real
They cut sharper than any knife.
When I try to pull the plug,
Colorful pain flickers into view.
The more I fight it,
The more I see you.
Ami Watanabe
Ami Watanabe is a poet, blogger, and visual artist from Chicago, IL. She attended South Suburban College, Purdue University and Governor’s State University. She won the Scriblarean Best Poem Contest, and was Second Place Winner of the Sigrid Stark Undergraduate Poetry. Her poems and articles have appeared in the Spindrift, Scribblarean, the Pond, The Write City Review, volume 4, The Calumet Press, and the Southeast Observer. Her photography has appeared in the Chicago Star, Memory House Magazine, spring 2023 edition, and Performance Response Journal. Check her blog out at www.diamondlifeadventures.com