Damnatio Memoriae*
Five years ago, after a quarrel, you locked up a girl in bedroom
While you bunked in your couch, totally pissed off
Next day, when you woke up from a migraine, she had gone
Later, two cops knocked your door. Yet it turned out to be nothing particular
They just ‘invited’ you to the precinct for a little ‘talk’
It’s not even the first time you were busted into a police station
You were free to go after a scolding by a senior officer
Who happened to be your girlfriend’s uncle
She was dead to you, for sure. She never shown up again
Three days later, your parents came back from a biz trip
Nobody knew this episode, not even the gossiping doorman
After that summer, you graduated from the college
And got a job in the then burgeoning virtual reality industry
The only problem was, you started to remember things--
Strangled neck, pale body, black cable, and big canvas duffle bag
Flashbacks like some shitty trailer for a cheap horror film
You drove your rusty coupe to a newly built landfill at midnight
Walking dreamingly among piles of poignant war trash
Funny story, as one of the student environmentalists
You joined a demonstration against that landfill last year, together with her
You two even broke into the fence and vandalized its incinerator
You were arrested on site and yelled that you would shut it down one day
It was her uncle who bailed you out and smoothed things over
Now you only wished that garbage dump would never be relocated again
Yes, you would like to toss her belongings to that incinerator
That’s the decent way to destroy memory, but you don’t wanna get caught
Red-handed by some Good-Will-Hunter-like night watch--
That would be too incombustible for an infernal dream
You had deleted Antigone, her phone number as a start
Then you deleted three loved houses, two cities, some realms you owned
(On internet), two rivers, a (sexual) continent (No, you don’t miss them)
That’s what Ex Communication’s all about--no communication
Incommunicado, radio silence--a slow death in a quicksand
Love is like a tailgate party, you never really enjoy unless you get drunk
You never be able to drive away unless you sober up
To quit love, you have to break the spells of love’s relics, if not fetish
Don’t say you still kept her dress and shoes
The war is never over
* Damnatio memoriae means “condemnation of memory” i.e. to erase someone
from history, which was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman
Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State.
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