Hymn to Mnemosyne, Mike Rogers (June 2026)

 

Hymn to Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne’s the Mother of the Muses
because the test of every work of art
is how well everyone remembers it
whatever the process of memory
whether its claws dig in to be dislodged
only with torn flesh and long lacerations
or stings like bees and wasps piercing the skin
disperse its irritant through all the blood
or burr-like bracts thousands of tiny hooks
latch on to every purchase the mind offers
so efforts to detach attach it firmer
until it can no longer be distinguished
from what was there at first and has become
part of ourselves to live and die with us