The Shepherd of Remembrance

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With age

I have become the shepherd of remembrance 
The caretaker of dreams
The defender of sorrow
And the custodian of faith
That despite the frost
arrives even as the Night Jasmine blooms
and reflects their light back to
to a sad-eyed summer moon.

And I am the guardian of experiences
Where the ghosts of anyone who
has ever said, “I love you,”
like my mom and dad
Or left me 
The way she did
Live on
To remind me that moments of happiness can only be caught
Like butterflies 
in snapshots 
which never reveal
What happened seconds later.

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