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“You forget I remember nothing”

Presented a history

Supposedly mine

Don’t remember a damn thing

Is that a crime?

 

Recalling the past?

No I’ve pushed it away

Couldn’t cope with the influence

So tonics of forgetfulness I take

 

Rifling through pictures

Full of figures unknown to me

Then out jumps a familiar one

A younger version of me I see

 

Captured in a moment

But it’s a moment that I forget

Though the picture supposedly proves participation

Of its truthfulness I am suspect

 

Perhaps I did play a part

But perhaps that’s just not true

For pictures are so easily doctored

So I need something else for proof

 

Captured glimpses and memories

A history of yours they make

I’m detached from those mementos you bring

To not a single one can I relate

 

Worded facts are then voiced aloud

To prove that images are true

Presented with such a burden of evidence

My denials will no longer do

 

But if the pictures and words are truthful facts

Then why do I remember not a bit?

Was there an excess of trauma, or too much drama

And so my past I’ve e-sponged all of it?

 

But the storytellers beseech me, with them rejoice

To cooperate that which they preach

But how can I do that? When fictional are their facts

When of their tales I’ve not a single memory?

 

Me: Blank expression

Them: Smiles abound

Me: Eyes looking forward

Them: Eyes turned wrong way around

 

A case has been tried

A decision has been rendered

And that verdict is conclusive

Free to go is the unremembered

 

Free of past burdens

Free of past decisions

Free to move on

Free to choose my direction

 

Continuing on with my journey

But first I must bid you farewell

But though I extend you my salutations

You’re nowhere to be found

 

Me: In the present

You: In the past

And because of these logistics

Our paths will never cross

 

Live in the present

Dead is the past

Memories forgotten

Focused on present tasks

 

Seeking new stories

That is my quest

With histories forgotten

Clean is my slate

error: Copyright 2022 Christopher Little. All rights reserved.