Memory is a trickster.
Happiness is fleeting.
We pack away
the joy and laughter
to savor down the road
when we need a boost,
and yet too often
the most treasured
slip away with time.
We count ourselves lucky
to remember what we can,
and blessed to have
photographs and trinkets
to remind us when we falter.
Memory is a trickster.
The darker emotions linger,
and anger, heartache, and grief
rise unbidden to the surface.
We may forgive, but forget?
That's near impossible.
Maybe we don't forget these things
because we live them everyday.
Apologies don't come,
cruelty and unkindness thrive,
and the dead don't return,
no matter how we might
wish it otherwise.
The folly of forgetting
is our battle with the trickster
to hold onto what is good
and release all the rest.
Elise Skidmore ©2019
