Search History - Dec 13 2021

 

Search History

Dec 13 2021

I search history

for patterns, answers

what might happen again.

Because if history doesn't repeat

at least it rhymes.

My personal search history

       —   while admittedly less interesting

    than conquest and famine

    dynasty and war,

    less beautiful

    than manuscripts and ruins

    and mythological lore   —

must have some meaning, as well.

And which, like Pompeii,

will never be truly deleted

no matter what they say.

The web has it,

and will

for as long as servers hum

and the cloud doesn't fall.

But what about what's missing?

The history that never got written

and only I know?

Which most of it is.

The little things

I remember

regret

may have tried to forget.

Ruminate on, time and again.

That seemed inconsequential, back when,

a minor omission

something unkind I said.

Written by the victors, of course.

While the losers tell stories

long into the night.

Pass on

sagas and songs,

epic poems

they've learned by heart.

I search my memory

for this hidden trove.

What no one but me

would care to know

and will over time be lost,

permanently deleted

like me, when I'm gone.

Except, perhaps, for a poem or two

I may have shared, repeated

recited just once.

That rhymed

with someone else's life,

who found it touching enough

to want to save.