forgetting someone you love

FORGETTING SOMEONE WHOM YOU LOVE

Forgetting someone whom you love
is like when, careless, you forget
to turn the light off. With the sun above
before it slowly starts to set
you don’t know what you have forgotten,
but once it’s dark you surely know.
The light forgotten should feel rotten
since you all day ignored its glow
while the sun was shining, and
you wasted lots of electric-
icity. Do understand
forgotten friends feel just like this!
Their light, of course, enables you
to see them when they start to spark,
but you should keep them in your view
before you need them, when it’s dark.

Inspired by a very brief poem by Yehudah Amichai:

Forgetting someone is like forgetting to turn off the light
in the backyard so it stays lit all the next day

But then it is the light that makes you remember.

3/3/10