Holding Time Poem by Neil Graham Marsden

I awoke as if like lightning then
to realise that ten years on,
all memory of your face had faded,
that old great healer time had called again.

Turning on the light I reached across the bed
into my memory box of faces long since gone.
Blowing off the dust, you nestled seven deep,
your photograph now dancing by the mellow light.

I kissed you once for luck and saved the next,
I had always had delivery in mind.
Staring intently for five minutes and one second,
the next decade worth of memory stored to mind.

I replaced you five deep when I put you back,
a change of view for you, rotation of lost souls alike.
Safely stored away again, I returned to dreams alone,
to recall you as and when I wished my loves,

forever defying time.