Memory Lane

We recall moments through lenses of
Time, emotion, changing priorities,
Love, death, marriage, divorce, accidents, geography
And surviving photographs.
An event's purity vanishes instantaneously,
Shaped by our perceived place in it,
Its fleeting importance,
Imprinted on a brain cell that,
When retrieved,
Presents only a facsimile of the snapshot,
But it is no longer the exact truth.
We shape shift it unconsciously,
Polishing it,
Raising, lowering, focusing its vitality,
Inventing different supporting evidence and characters
Until they serve their function,
Anchoring us somewhere in time
So we can talk and reminisce,
But always about what might have been
Because the memory has been
Warped, shaved, brought back, stacked away repeatedly.
And each recollection morphs and dog ears the time,
Molding, foxing, blurring into
Sweet lies
We carry and change and use forever.

© Poem Fix http://www.poemfix.com 2012