Tuesday, September 3, 2013

To Forget


To Forget

The list of things to forget
brought me to remember what I’d lost
and not wanted to find ever again--
to pains and ashes and broken hearts
of long ago and yesterday,
all coming back.

To write it down becomes remembrance--
I try mourning again, like the obituary
falling out of the well fingered Bible,
old and tattered, its fluttering downward
bringing fresh tears.

In trying to forget, I remember again
the joys and smiles and songs well sung.
Those notes dull the pain of what
I came here to forget, but 
need to remember
again.


  ---Neal Lemery, 9/2/2013