Remembering

These ills ought you have expected?

Yes—or fled quickly to the skies.

[Te faudra-il ces maulx attendre ?

Ouy, ou tout vif aller ès cieulx.]

—François Villon, The Great Testament (1461)

What force pricks out the fragments that survive

And holds them there in limbo, alive,

For no reason easy to find out?

Memory’s a mad capricious thing:

You can’t recall things it won’t bring.

A secret hides in this no doubt:

Mind makes a comforting memorial

Of random scraps’ select tutorial:

We could not bear it if great All

Still had its former power to enthrall.

Memorial Day, 2025