The Physics of Memory

Memory cells spread out on the ground
stones also and water flowing in all directions
the marsh is flooded the road cracked
nothing around could prevent
but the images are brighter now
cut off from any further speculation
laid out in context burned and resized
regenerated from a single cell
larger than the flurry of photons bouncing off the newly risen moon.





False Premises

Conversation tires quickly, wings folded, beak dark,
a trance over the hills, ridges of light stapled to rock,
each sound reverberates oddly, avoiding the updraft,
haze settling on the western lines
the eyes begin seeking another space
easing up the lens, hauling in the retina
there's too much snow tonight too much frost along the fence
whether the words snap off suddenly or wither
the air lightens, fades, recedes.





Riddles

Each day tumbling over, spinning before landing upright, dazed or clear-headed, it really doesn't matter any longer, nothing remains in place, neither the color of the sky nor the tone of a voice, each day rolls over a bar, avoiding the confrontation of wood on skin or metal on mind, the lines have been drawn meticulously, etched in the cortex so that no one can mistake past for present or discuss the possibility of changing the flow.





Voice Lines

A certain inability to allow the voice to continue, to permit the tight association of image and person. Reluctance to believe in the strength of the future. A disconnect, a disassociation, a deliberate separation of the boundaries defining space and thought. The sky is grey tonight, the air tightly wound around some invisible core. There's no rain yet, although the leaves are a flat black-green. Nothing unusual, nothing note-worthy; others continue without remarking anything. The voice line fluctuates, bleeds off at the end.





Forgotten Sources

The blood still flows in and out and all around the trunk, each limb shining swiftly, crazed with a lace-stitched webbing of soil and mineral, leaves imprinted on vein and marrow, the outer shell as warm as the evening sun; summer light when the body rests and the blood still flows in and out and all around the trunk.


© Andrea Moorhead 2007