Reina

I have been here before.
With different faces around me and a slightly different one in the mirror.
I have seen this all before and it was tinted the faintest shade of blue.
It was colder.
The skies seemed a little further.
And I was here.
Imagine forcing a memory out of existence. It seems impossible but if your heart forgets to beat every time you remember, your body will protect you from yourself.
So in the deepest crevices of my memory I saw us here. I remember us here. Watching Elephants walk by us and stop to introduce themselves to us.
I saw us in a different time and I was a different me, but we were happy and I can honestly say it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
How I got here I can't recall but I needed to see this one last time.
They say Elephants can sense when the end is near and they go back to where they took their first breath.
They go back to the start.
I breathed for the first time when I was with you. Right here. With giant beasts that could trample us but treated us with gentleness we'd long forgotten.
I've missed you for a long time now.
I've forgotten a lot of parts to our story but can you blame me? We do what we can to move on.
The world has a way of righting it's wrongs, so faith came along eventually. Faith in myself.
I hope I'll see you, I really do. But nobody knows what happens next.
For now I'll breathe this beautiful place in, one last time.
When the matriarch of the herd passed away, they come forward and paid their respects.
Gently touching her forehead with their trunks.
Warrior that she was.
The wind kisses my forehead, almost caressing my head saying how proud of me they are.
Proud that I made it here, happy that I came back to see them.
Proud that I fought, I lived and I smiled again.

                                                       --Ananya Murali