Is the Archive Alive?

Your battles are over. What befell
has been slipped into folders, boxed, and measured.
Your ink so flat, fruitful,
still desires to unfold —

I am sorry
I don’t remember
I have found great comfort
I regret
I have been terror-stricken

— an apology or an argument.

What do we reach for now, but words?

With them, with their aid
we finish each other’s sentences
and we finish the sentences of the dead.