I can't remember

I don't remember when I looked up and heard a seagull's cries I don't remember the line of gold of my first sunrise I don't remember the time at Fire Island when Mom carried me to the sea I don't remember when I learned that all that lives must cease to be There was the first time I climbed the big rock in central Park I was having so much fun that it made a lasting mark But of summers in New England, when I didn't want to leave Only mental snapshots remain, mental movies I can't retrieve As I age, I feel new wonder about what I took for granted In those first years, I can't recall, was everything enchanted? Is the past a hidden country, and if we look, can we find? Odd what we remember, and what we leave behind, First, a chapter locked away when everything was new, Then a lifetime swiftly passed—oh, how the decades flew! I remember things that didn't happen, forgot things that did Memory reconstructs and recombines, and I was just a kid But I want to know what happened and to strive for what was real Not distorted by who I wish I was or what I want to feel I remember 9/11, I was in asleep in a Swiss hotel Our leader knocked on my door, told me the Twin Towers fell I looked out at the Matterhorn, realized this must lead to war Twenty years later, U.S. recruits had to be told what they were fighting for. Some want you to forget what happened at Tiananmen Square Rebels once raised a Goddess of Democracy, new thoughts in the air Some want you to forget the Holocaust, some the Holodomor If memory can be overwritten, then what is a mind for? I walked into an old cemetery on a busy street I saw eroded words on a stone, a memory in retreat A summary of a brave life, soon no memory will remain I shed a tear for his memory, then it began to rain I had cycled over two mountain passes there was just one to go But it meant a big climb, and my strength had sunk so low. A man came from an alpine meadow, offered me his chocolate bar Odd what you remember, when kindness takes you far. Beware those who tell you to forget To lose all those yesterdays, to do a full reset Do keep the warning signs, the values worth a fight Don't let anyone wipe them clean, don't go gentle into their night.