Recalling Forgetting

When I think that I've forgotten
Something I'm pretty sure I knew,
It's like losing my wallet or my keys
Or confusing green with blue.
Is it a common part of aging
Or is my hard drive all fragmented?
Have I forgotten things painful to recall
Or is it random and thus lamented?
I wish I knew if I were just out of space
To contain what I have known,
Or am covertly erasing unwanted scraps
Of things I'd rather have not been shown?

I know that I don't know it
And sometimes don't know what it is -
Each is troubling in its own way
Like a soft drink that's lost its fizz.
There's something familiar about a taste
That's been in my mouth before,
But the residual remnants of experience
Are the foundations of lost lore.

To remember everything
Might be quite overwhelming-
Like trying to steer a big sailing ship
With no experience at helming.
There is some sense in the idea
That the old must make room for the new -
Even as it affects our recall
Of events involving both me and you.

Forgetting what we once recalled
May be necessary to make room
For the new things that we need to learn
To not become entombed
By everything from yesterday
That we hoped to always hold -
There comes a time when
Just like bread,
Hot knowledge just grows cold.
No need to endlessly forage
For old memories relegated to storage.