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