Nostalgia’s Deception
A Poem
Nostalgia is not a return
to that place
of memories and dreams
That place no longer
exists except
in your cluttered mind
The small town
where you grew up
has changed with buildings
boarded or razed
The young have left
the old have died —
those still there peek
from curtained windows
Those who walk
the empty streets
are strangers
and you are but a ghost.
Nostalgia, to me, encompasses warm memories of the past. Returning to where the memories were formed is another thing. Time has marched on. Call it progress or the opposite.
The cherished places and treasured memories, those, you keep for yourself, tucked away in the dresser drawer in the attic of your mind. And share them with those who still remember and with those who may delight in hearing of them.
I’ve felt that disappointment in so many places I’ve gone back to visit, always wondering what I saw in them. Just wrote a poem about that not too long ago, as well. It’s never the same, but it helps you appreciate the way things are now.