Forgetfulness Poem by Vicki Feaver

When my memory
was a film library
with a keen curator

who knew precisely
where to find clips
of every word

I wished unsaid,
or deed undone,
to play back to me

on sleepless nights,
I'd have welcomed her
muddling the reels.

But now the curator's
retired, the ordered
shelves are in chaos.

I roam the racks
without a guide
searching for scenes

I've lost. Sometimes,
unable to remember
what I'm searching for,

I find Forgetfulness
kneeling on the floor -
an old woman, pale

and worried as a ghost,
rummaging in a tangle
of shiny black ribbons.