Perhaps memory…
April 27, 2015 § 4 Comments
Perhaps memory is a string of beads
we add to day by day.
My brother has that kind of memory.
Thorough, sequential, detailed.
***
Perhaps memory is an old home movie
Clicking through a projector,
the color shifted
toward gold.
***
Perhaps memory is a stone
lying on the riverbed so long
all the rough edges
have worn away.
***
Perhaps memory is a story.
No longer attached to the event
it has taken on a life of its own
in the retelling.
***
Perhaps memory is the account
of one eye witness.
My sister and I diverge
on common events.
Only one can be right.
***
Perhaps memory is a locked box
each of us has
to keep our good times safe and unassailable.
A place where what has been
cannot unbe.
***
Perhaps memory chooses
what it holds on to.
I retain the sunny days,
fail to archive the ones that
keep me in bed,
defeated.
***
Perhaps memory can get lost
like the purpose of the stray key
on a key ring.
What used to roar to life
when that key was turned?
What did it once open?
****
Perhaps memory—mine is of this kind
is a collection of snapshots.
My sister, brother and I sit
on the edge of my mother’s skirt
spread in a circle around her on the grass.
A fish flashes up out of the water,
and Ray’s rod bends double.
Josie splashes in the canal
her water wings bright orange.
Craig counts softly, one, two, three, four,
and we come in on the
downbeat.
***
Perhaps memory is our assurance that
whatever today brings,
we exist, we are loved and
we have done things
that matter.
I’m not sure that my memory is sequential, but it is detailed, I’ll give you that. I think my memory is a snapshot with a “key” attached to it, a word or phrase that pops the snapshot into my active thought process. You want an example? I give you “AVONALLIV”. The memories that pop to mind when I see/hear that are vivid.
Great post Amy!
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Don’t deny it Chris. You have a great memory. And for those of you not in our particular family, AVONALLIV was the mysterious name of a boat in a family slide that puzzled us for quite some time before anyone figured out that the slide was in backwards and that the vessel’s real name was the VILLANOVA.
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To me “AVONALLIV” brings me back to our old house, downstairs in the family room with mom at the slide projector and us with the Kreuz kids on the floor watching her presentation of a trip we did to Virginia, probably in the early 70’s. I forget which ocean edge town had the Villanova in it, but I sure remember Mom being puzzled about the Avonalliv. Yeah, it’s become a family meme at this point. 🙂
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See, Chris. I knew you would have more context for that memory. Your memory unfurls like a bolt of fabric. Mine exists in single images.
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