He was losing his family, almost intentionally.
Yet, also unintentionally.
Computers do that to some people.

It was lying in his head.
All it needed was a stimulus, a sensation,
Something from his bloodshot eyes and ringing ears.

He saw a link he wanted to see.
The music wasn’t too much, the eyes weren’t assaulted.
Just a track on YouTube.

It was triggered by the music box.
The title, “Memory”, was something of an old friend
To this idea, sleeping as a memory of its own

It and he met for the first time in a while
It proposed an unusual idea
He accepted it.

He paced around the room, looking.
It was fed by his thoughts.
He and it worked together, feeding off of one another.

Down in a corner, tucked away behind some trinkets,
There was a poster.
Pictures of him as a baby.

It grew as the details became more apparent.
He was a happy child, a bit chubby
But he didn’t care about weight then.

He hugged his mom a lot.
It was bloated now.
He liked dinosaurs.

The little poster had some dinosaur stickers on it,
Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, all the usual ones.
He still remembered most of the obscure stuff about each.

Written in Sharpie by a loving hand,
Small balloons and flowers,
Smiling, innocently, after 15 years.

It couldn’t handle it.
He couldn’t handle it either.
They both died a little.

He went up to his room and began to weep incessantly.
It was dead now, dead but satisfied.

He went up to his parents, his siblings,
Told them he loved them.
And they all lived happily ever after.