Student Publishing Program ::

Kate Donahue

Amnesia

I was going through
my old diaries
the other day.

Flipping through the pages,
I happened across one entry.

“Something magical happened to me today.
It was amazing.
I’d write it down, but I won’t because
I know I’ll remember it forever.”

At first I was embarrassed.
This kind of
preening
and
smugness
and
I-am-the-Chosen-One-ness
is precisely the kind of
self-importance
I hate.

I was annoyed.
Who was this child
to presume what I would
or wouldn’t
remember?

I looked at the date
It was years ago.
How many things have happened
since then?
How many times have I
stopped,
vowing, this, this,
would be the center of my life?
How could I be expected
to remember this
astonishing event
that had left such an impression?

I tried rewinding to the days
when things were simpler
and more exciting
and bigger.

But it was no use.

I forgot.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS, LHS CLASS OF 2011 EDITION]