-- The Pain of a Memory--

by John Herlihy

The pain of a memory returns when no longer forgotten,

The pain being illegally obtained and therefore ill-gotten.

Some experience from the past as if a blow were struck,

A memory at times remembered as if in the mind stuck.

The brunt of our ill-gotten memories as dead and buried,

The emotions they often stir are melancholic and varied.

Once forgotten, now remembered, a long-lost betrayal,

Bitter-sweet gain and loss as such an ignoble portrayal.

The death of a friend who presence now is simply gone,

Our days hardly remember the tender arrival of dawn.

Lost love preserved as a memory of everything we miss,

Of all the things to forever forget, I want to forget this.

The pain of memory always remains at the tip of a spear,

We think forgotten, only to realize the memory still near.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 27 July 2024