July 21, 2025

we are now at the state
of being home around a week
i’m getting farther and farther away from
being able to say
“i just got back from Europe”

i’m soon going to have to use terms like
“recently”
and then “last month”
and “earlier this year”

i just want to keep saying “just”

it helps with the fact that
my brain is still 100%
in Europe

July 18, 2025

my shirt
still kind of smells
like all the memories
made
in Europe

unfortunately
it’s all the mundane
or slightly grungy memories
that this scent evokes

walking and walking and walking
in shirts i’d already maybe worn twice
mixing sweat with deodorant
with sunscreen
with city

i washed this shirt well
put it through an extra rinse and everything

i guess when a trip gets into the fibers of clothing
it’s sort of like a city getting into your own bones

it just won’t go
away on its own

July 15, 2025

how come i am so hyper-aware
of every moment in time
and how they will become memories
in the next moment

so much so that, even trying to experience them, i am often thinking
fifteen minutes[at least] into the future

i feel like i was barely in the moment
of looking forward to this trip
and only in it
for half a second
and now i’m back
and looking back on
experiences i know took time to have
but now they live only in my
memory