My neighbor has a pressure washer
that he uses to clean his walks

He doesn’t like grime in the porous surface
that turns green every fall

His wife likes that he doesn’t like the grime
and usually watches him do it, with a smile

He showed me how it’s just regular water
straight from the garden hose

But when pressurized,
it hits the driveway with great force,

The dirt and mold
are removed, completely

I wish there was one of those
for all my bad memories

Memories of failures
and opportunities lost

The ones that come calling at night
just before you go to sleep

The ones that invite you
to stay up with them for a while

I could line them up, blast ’em to smithereens,
never to lose sleep over them again

Gone would be all the impetuous, half-baked, dumb-ass moments
that fill the pits and cracks of my life

leaving only