subtext

• •

Recombinate Memory

Memory, perpetually cloaked

in iridescent shadow, finds

itself a metaphor, becoming

along the way something

other, something momentarily

more accurate, than it ever was—

something easier, somehow, 

in this moment,

to see

what was there once before,

to see

what was there all along.

As if instead of a tsunami

calmly obliterating the past

like a Japanese fishing village 

washed clean from the shore

in a spasm of forgetfulness,

amnesia lifted thin silk veils

to reveal new aspects of time

no longer smothered beneath

the scent of stale mothballs

and the thick quilted layers

of familial consensus.

(August 18, 2025)