The Trick of Memory

 

Your life is mostly forgotten.

That’s why it feels so short.

Most days are nothing in particular –

Nothing to write the cosmos about –

And even memorable things are unremembered 

More often than you might suppose.

 

Life isn’t short; your memory is weak.

It lets the vacuum of oblivion 

Claim days in their thousands,

Minutes in their millions,

Until you feel you’ve blinked 

And found yourself grown old.

 

Don’t let it fool you. You’ve had a long life –

And what remains is not so very brief.

You still have time for many thousand moments,

Which are there not to be remembered,

But lived.