MATERIA NON MEDICA; 'FORGETFULNESS'

Tuesday, 13th of December 2011

'Forgetfulness,' by Billy Collins, poet laureate

FORGETFULNESS

The name of the author is the first to go

followed

obediently by

the title, the plot,

the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel

which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never

even heard of,

as if, one bv one, the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,

to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses good-bye

and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,

and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

,something else is slipping a\vay, a state flower perhaps,

;fotheaddress of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay .

••W•.•h•atever it is you are strugglmg to remember

it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,

not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river

whose name begins with an L

as far as you can recall,

well on your own wayto oblivion where you will join those

who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a

bicycle .

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night

to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war,

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted

out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Friday, 24th of April 2020

Thursday, 16th of April 2020

Tuesday, 17th of March 2020

Monday, 17th of February 2020

Tuesday, 11th of February 2020

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