Memory is a Silly Old Bugger

Memory is a silly old bugger,
He’s the living example of hugger mugger,
He plays hide and seek with facts and with figures,
Today’s events…he hides away somewhere
and substitutes twenty-year-old events for display;
So memory tells man he’s not ill, he’s “Just fine!”
And man’s memory’s gone like a skunky old wine.

Man goes to the store but memory fails,
He’s forgotten his list, he has plenty of bread,
’Cause memory does flips and teases instead,
So man’s memory of lists inevitably bails.

Man gets those second childhood thoughts,
He recites from chapter and from verse,
The stories get wilder, the telling gets worse,
His memories bounce like malicious bots.

Ask him his age and he’ll tell you he’s fine,
Ask where he lives and he’ll tell you in London
When really he lives in North America’s New Bunton,
And try as he will, he’s forgotten to dine.

Oh memory is a grand old tease,
He’ll tell you you’re well, you have no disease,
So you’ll carry on and he’ll blot up your deeds
And hide them away as if they were weeds.

Oh memory! He’s such a silly old Bugger –
He considers himself a high-scoring slugger
But in reality, he’s just a plain old street mugger,
He’ll rob you of all that is true and leave you to blubber.

Oh, you try to train them when they are young
But memories have a mind of their own.
You try to give them muscle but they prefer bone,
Like mischievous kids, they prefer to roam.

They love to play that hide and go seek,
And when you try to find them, you don’t get a peek,
They dance on the tip of your tongue, sir,
Yes, indeed, memory is a silly old bugger.
—

Image from Pickit

H. W. Bryce, Author of Chasing Butterfly: A journey in poems of love and loss to acceptance, the Poetry of Alzheimer’s and Poems for Everybody.

Chasing a Butterfly is available at Amazon.ca – goo.gl/nexsF4
Preview available there.  Note: Partial proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Society to fight this disease.

H. W. Bryce blogs at: hwbrycewrites.com (Books, Blogs and Butterflies)
Mr. Bryce served as Judge at 2017 Rabindranath Tagore Awards International, English Poetry
He is published in several anthologies, in Canada and in the USA.