Remember How We Forgot

Remember how we forgot? Remember how no one ever really died in the wars we fought? Because each gunshot came from our finger tips And we never really kept them loaded just in case Cause each enemy was a friend and none of it was about oil, religion, or land It was all just pretend Remember how we used to bend reality Like we were circus strong men Like our imaginations were in shape then Like we were all ninjas trained in the deadly art of "did not" Like "I totally got you" "Did not" Remember how we forgot? Remember how our parents told us never to look directly into the sun And how we were their sun And so we never looked directly into the mirror, in fear that we would go blind Remember how we used to find any old reason just to call someone we were crushing on Like we could just pawn off our sense of embarrassment Buy a chunk of courage that would last just long enough to have us askin em about math And stuff And how stuff was just stuff Like I heard you're getting braces, now braces somehow were and still are kinda hot Remember how we forgot? Remember how we all caught mono and our folks would go, "oh the kissing disease" And our first steps into gangstahood had us saying “mother please.” Even though we’d never really kissed anyone Even though we never did half the things we said we’d done We just spun yarn like Rumpelstiltskin spun gold We told ghost stories never realizing we would one day ourselves become ghosts Haunting the hallways of schools Breaking all the rules of silence in the library But we had no chains to rattle No voice to battle the fact that we had no vocal chords We had only finger nails on chalk boards We would scream, shout, and yell trying to tell ourselves what experience can teach is What no teacher taught Remember how we forgot? Once upon a time, we were young Our dreams hung like apples Waiting to be picked and peeled And hope was something needing to be reeled-in So we can fill the always empty big fish bin with the one that got away And proudly say that "this time, impossible is not an option" Because success is so akin to effort and opportunity they could be related So we took chances We figure skated on thin ice Believed that each slice of live was served with something sweet on the side And failure was never nearly as important as the fact that we tried That in the war against frailty and limitation We supplied the determination it takes to make ideas and goals the parents of Possibility And we believe ourselves to be members of this family Not just one branch on one tree But a forest whose roots make up a dynasty So when I call you sis or bro It’s not lightly And when I ask you to remember It’s because the future isn't what it used to be So remember now Pay tribute to every sacrifice laid upon the altar of somehow For all the times Somehow we overcame Somehow we pushed on Somehow we’ve gone the distance And in going there we possessed the freedom to map the uncharted lands of any and Everywhere We are unbound Six feet above the underground where we will all one day rest So until then Test the limits Test the boundaries and borders As if the headquarters of potential lay just beyond the world's edge Let the belief that hope belongs to us all Be the pledge you take to make the unachievable as inconceivable as the false fact hat We were never here We were here And our memories are as dear to us as every slow motion moment or held breath So remember every instance before death Every first kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe so Let us go the distance once more Let us remember all the moments that were and were not Like the point is something we can get and what we can get is what we got Because all we have are the times between the moments we connect each dot So live and remember Burn like an ember capable of starting fires Like each moment inspires the next Like memories are the context we put ourselves in So that life becomes the next of kin we need to notify in case of a big bang or Extinction level event Let now be our advent Let us live like we meant it Let us burn like we mean it Because this world doesn't give a shit if we end in a train wreck or a car crash If our story ends with a dot or dash If we were dust or ash Because all we were is all we’ll be And all we are is the in-between of so far, so good So forget every would, could, or should not Forget remembering how we forgot Live like a plot twist exists now and in memory Because we burn bright Our light leaves scars on the sun Let no one say we will be undone by time's passing The memories we are amassing will stand as testament That somehow we bent minds around the concept That we see others within ourselves That self-knowledge can't be found on bookshelves So who we are has no bearing on how we appear Look directly into every mirror Realize our reflection is the first sentence to a story And our story starts: "We were here."