a foolish thing to rely on memory thus
for when one repeats oneself so one forgets
just what was said when, if at all, and then by whom,
or if the story, you embellished so, was real,
or simply a way to hold the listener’s ear
then repeated, like the beating of a drum, or
a ritual chant, inspiring the teller – –
you , me, some other, to believe in what we say
to the exclusion of all that would contradict
a foolish thing to rely on memory thus
the words were written in order to preserve them
beyond the attention span of the listener
distracted by lunch or what he saw at the bar
the night before he sat to listen to your tale
with all of this gravity spinning his mind off
along tangents unrelated to what you say
It is a wonder he can gather any sense
from the mosaic of words that catch in his ear
a foolish thing to rely on memory . . .
(from Primogenitive Folly, August 2001- April 2003)
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