Memories...

Photograph
by Gilbert Koh

Smile, I commanded
you obeyed
and I caught forever
that moment
when something
on your face
disguised itself
so well as happiness.

Quiet fears
and other troubles
have marred this day
yet the years will pass
and in time this image
will be enough
to make us believe
that in this instant
we had been so much happier
than we really were.

How kind and skilful,
the way time deceives memory,
fills us with warm
nostalgia for things
that never really happened.