My Nostalgia

You leave me
And I recurl into myself
Enter a different world
The one enclosed within the walls of this room
A place that I know best

And the memories simmer
Bubbling beneath the surface
They come alive with scents and sounds
Soaking into everything that I touch
More poignant than my own heartbeat

Abuja will come like a whirlwind
December second - that afternoon after Lara's wedding
May first - that morning Pops woke me with his voice
November - that gallery viewing evening
July - that day Ammy saved me

Your words remain with me
The feeling I got from sitting across a table
Spotting a cocktail and a bottle of Gulder
From you
I remember what it felt like

Nostalgia will kill me one day
It will leave you wishing for moments you can never recover
It will make the breath catch in your throat
It will make your eyes, which should really be asleep at such hours of the night, water
Nostalgia will kill you one day

In a bid to escape my impending gloom
The gloom that I ought not feel when I see pictures from my past
I remember the beauty that I have in today
In a new city, a new place
Making memories with new people

A time will come again
When I will want to enter a world apart from this one
One with framed regrets hanging on the walls
With the air drenched in discontentment and 'if-only's
But I will remember
That nostalgia might kill me one day