The wind in my hair

The thing about nostalgia

It grabs you out of nowhere

Flips you on your head

Blurs your vision, trips your step

Makes you remember a past that never was

Takes you down an old road

Then leaves you there alone

At the time it feels like the summer breeze

You beg to be caught up in it

Flirt your way in

But ‘when all is said and done’

It was only a dream of what was not

Wind in my hair didn’t feel so good back then

I dreamt instead of air conditioning

So what is it that I miss

Is it the past or the present that missed the mark

It can be hard to focus looking backwards

I sweep my hair aside

Engage in the current day

And leave melancholy to the wind

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The wind in my hair explores the seductive unreliability of nostalgia — recognising how memory can romanticise what once felt unbearable, and gently choosing presence over the distortions of looking back.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.