Researchers postulate that memory is finite.
Unlike the expanding universe,
our memory is shrinking.
I don't remember why I climbed the stairs –
to fetch a book, my glasses?
And where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one.
Gone like music streaming to the MP3s.
Computers now are sucking all the memory.
It's all on chips. It drains and drips from us –
amnesia bit by bit and byte by byte.
What person's brain still carries 6 times 12?
Consult the calculator. Cell phones have
our contacts. In libraries I long for drawers
of cards. Instead, computer stations.
Perhaps, health care reform will snare
and sell whatever's left of elder memory
to pay for Medicare and national debt.
Time to Twitter.
Post the news on Facebook.
Now, if I could just recall that password . . .