Sacramento

By Tanisha Desai

People ask me 

Time and again 

Why I love being there. 

They don’t know 

how much it feels 

Like a hazed fever dream 

Wind whipping my hair and my face and my world 

As it turns upside down 

And suddenly it’s a tangle of 

Ocean blue eyes and 

Lilting haunted memories 

That will replay in my mind for life 

An unfixable- no, unstoppable- record 

And whispered words and silent memories 

And hands threading through mine, burning their mark in for eternity And cookies that taste like forever 

Giggling sweet faces and 

Cars roaring down a lonely highway 

Nineties pop song blaring in the background And the only proof I was ever there And I didn't dream it all 

Will be high pitched dulcet screams of memory that creep in the dead of night And the sudden flash of indicolite 

And the lingering taste of warm chocolate 

And a small, almost unnoticeable but fiercely present 

Red burn on my palm 

A handprint.

By Tanisha Desai