Life – When we die, what will we remember? | Poem
When we die, what will we remember?
The whole world, full of things to forget
Remembering something or not is not in our hands
But forgetting everything is inevitable and unavoidable.
Close to the ember, what will we remember?
The bargaining at a fixed price shop,
The window shopping at an expensive mall,
Or the uninteresting work of the JCB standing tall.
These things, no one remembers, made to be forgotten,
But there are things for which the world can never thank enough,
For these things are done in idleness, in tranquility,
And these are the moments which truly halt life.
Instead people remember the interest on the loan,
The broken screen guard of the phone,
The crunchy afternoon black currant scone.
When we perish, what will be left to cherish,
A warm smile on a loved one’s face,
A moment when we admire a picturesque place,
Or the unwillingly, unintentionally left behind trace.
These are the things we never cherish,
Even though they carry a moment of brilliance.
Rather we remember the never-done lace,
The I-always-trip-on-that staircase,
This selfish world’s struggle to win the rat-race
Whereas all ‘He’ wants us to seek is solace.
When we finally rest, what will we retain at best?
The scorchy indolent day of mid May,
The temple in our minds, we retreat to every time to pray,
Or the mirthfulness of receiving our first pay?
The reality is, nothing is to remain,
We all have to go
We all need to say goodbye,
We will remember none of this.
As what we will remember is that there was a life,
There was a you,
There was a me,
And there was a world.
Vying to pull us down from our pinnacle, but
We survived, only to not survive!
