do you remember? 

does it weigh on your heart the way that it crushes mine? do the sounds of my screams for help replay for you, the way they echo off my bedroom walls when i wake from memories posing as my nightmares?  sometimes i wonder if it was even real.  the girl in the photo with the face painted in bruises,  the couch with smeared blood that poured from broken lips as they pleaded for breath. were they even mine? do you think about these things?  are they a memory for you too, or have they faded to black like the ending of a movie?

i hear your voice still, telling me i deserved this.  but louder than your voice is my own, telling my body to fight and it screaming back 'i can’t'.  years have passed, so many beautiful moments have come and gone, all filled with words from loving voices.  but still, i wait for the ones in my nightmares to quiet.  and i wonder.  

do you remember?