There is something I know
That I wish I didn’t;
I would deny it into
Permanent erasure
But I don’t know
How to do that.
So, I must live with
Knowing what I would
Rather not know
About myself.
A Data Deletion program
For the human mind
Would probably wipe clean
More than the thing
I don’t want to know,
So even if that program
Existed,
It would probably work like
Electro-Convulsive Therapy
And take broad swatches
Of remembered experience
Away without
Specific choice
Or discrimination.
An anonymously wise voice
Echoes through the
Chambered Nautilus
Of my being,
“Be careful
What you wish for
Because
You just might
Get it.”
The ultimate
Cost of consciousness;
Living with what we know
Even if we wish
We didn’t
Know it.