Even if we knew at the time, saying, This is a time I will remember,

It would not be the strong time, the long time, not even the

rattled days, the everything-went-wrong-today times.

It might be much comitteed, built up big, and big bulletin-boarded,

And still not be the gold time, the have and hold, the good old

Told long after, and told and told, and told-again time.

It's probably the anytime, the many times, the time and time again time,

The no particular time at all and can't-remember-when time,

that you'll remember best, some after-ten, now-and-then time,

Some day a coat recalls, or by the way you wore your hair, or trees bare,

But not a he and she were there, not a who and who was there,

a really-care time, an I-remember-exactly-where time.

The times that we remember longest are the times we never knew we knew,

The in-the-meantimes, the before and after teens times, the seen

and lost, the tick click quick, the in-between times.