The Poem I Wrote In My Mind This Morning Walking Home Poem by Shalom Freedman

The poem I wrote in my mind this morning walking home
Is gone-

I will try to recall it -

It was not finished,
A few lines around an idea-

What was the idea?
I don't remember-

Slowly slowly in old age
The mind works less well

First it is trouble with names
Other peoples names-
And then what?

I recently cared for a man
Who often did not know his own name
And could not speak one sentence clearly-

The poem I lost this morning was not about ‘remembrance'
And its loss -

But on the way home I was happy when I suddenly remembered a name
I was looking for-

‘Perhaps it will not happen to me' I said
Or perhaps it will happen so far from now
I do not need to think about it'

One day all the poems will not be remembered
And these lines too will go to oblivion-

My poem this morning was not even writ in water-