Nothing is more permanent than memory

Cast-iron files of pain locked in your head

The mind gets drawn back to errors and loss

Magnetised by things you should have said

 

Torturer is chief is villainous hindsight

Squatting by the guillotine with a smirk

Chewing over all those might-have-beens

In lost chances where grief and loss lurk

 

Even in dreams we face the angry record

Haunted by how different it might have been

Tantalised by alternatives that seem so simple

Pricked by lost loves that shrank unseen

 

It seems to get worse as we grow older

Time adds more reminders to the toxic pile

New events spark off chain reactions of woe

A face reminds you of a rejected smile

 

Let the past go they say but the die is cast

Acceptance is a further glib answer that fails

Is it only my reminiscences that sting like adders?

Am I the only one hammered with these nails?