The shifting gaze of memory

 That memory is a shifting gaze,

is not such a harmless thing. 

It's pretty painful actually, 

to be reminded 

of this exceptional talent

life has, 

at moving objects.

Shifting it, 

sort of,

while you slowly pan

that imaginary camera,

to bring them in focus,

from that carefully devised perspective! 

Things change

all the time,

and what you knew as ice once

is water today, 

and what you knew once as rock,

is suddenly all but a helpless little pebble!

And the person you hated

for ten years

and fought all those

imaginary battles with, 

in your head, 

the person who got up from the table

and wakled away from you,

the person you slammed a door at,

never caring to look back!

When you see them 

after a decade, 

it's not the same person anymore! 

And instead of the 

heartless enemy 

you remember them as, 

you see the most humble creature;

a kind and forgiving soul, 

despite having been

abandoned and given up on,

stood up, 

betrayed, 

rejected, 

thrown out, 

walked away from, 

doors slammed at his face,

so many more times than you!

Or you see a defeated and shattered 

and grieving man, 

who has just lost a child or a parent, 

who has just lost a job or a home, 

who has lost all things 

that had taken a lifetime to build, 

and you suddenly 

look at their grey brown eyes

and see how life has done unto them, 

what it had done to you! 

But what's even more painful

is to be reminded of this, 

one fine morning, 

when you walk into a lecture theatre,

armed with facts and fiction, 

smiling, 

confident it's going to be fun, 

and suddenly, 

looking at one of the kids in the front row,

you are reminded of one of your friends,

and then all of your friends,

in a snowballing sort of way, 

and you look at the sparkle in their eyes,

these kids, 

all young and happy and hopeful,

and you are reminded,

of the twinkle in your own eyes, 

decades ago, 

and in the eyes of your friends, 

to who life happened, 

like it happens to all of us! 

And in that moment, 

reminded, 

suddenly, 

of how things change! 

Not just from how we remember them,

or what we once wanted them to be, 

but as much from what we see them as, 

contesting them in our heads! 

Rendering vacuous all contest!