Bella Shepard

Try To Remember

 

Try to remember the years that were tender

When youth was not a dying ember

 

Try to remember as brain cells surrender

Where thoughts are fodder for the blender

 

Try to remember the room you did enter

And why you’re there, that thread so slender

 

Deep in your memory are things that were friendly

If you can retrieve them and hold them steady

 

Things that were easy will now make you queasy

The strain alone can make you wheezy

 

Neural connections will give you perplexions

And thoughts of old are sad reflections

 

When was it last I remembered the past

That chasm now seems dark and vast

 

I see a face, the name I can’t think

It’s there on my tongue, right on the brink

 

Then tomorrow at noon it will suddenly emerge

A burst from my mouth as the planets converge

 

This gradual slow down I accept with grace

I know my brain has slackened its pace

 

The good side is I’m not plagued by unease

But can someone please tell me, where are my keys?