I am a time capsule
Buried deep inside of me
Are memories of who I was
Before cancer ravaged my body
Before two rear-end collisions scrambled my brain    TBIs
Before grief wrapped itself around me like a lead blanket
Before tumbling into a manhole   contusions tattooed on my body  

Fragments of my brain recall
The sun rising above
Turquoise waters       Indian Ocean
At a secluded villa in Zanzibar  

My body remembers the slight breeze
Of a September evening
As I photographed
A Night-Blooming Cereus     Queen of the Night

My tongue still tastes
The savory ragù     egg pasta    creamy béchamel
While feasting on a dish of lasagna
On a sidewalk café in Milan  

Whomever stumbles upon my time capsule
I hope they find the part of me that was not broken
Not shaped by woes  calamities   mishaps   scars
But the part that consistently showed up
The part that lived   laughed
When life offered nothing to smile about
The part that screamed
I existed  
I persevered
I survived
Despite