Memory Poem

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here

said Lincoln

which is true about everything

I mean what do you remember

you certainly don’t remember the plot of that best seller

you spent thirty dollars on

you don’t remember the plot of Swann’s Way either

though you remember how it made you feel

you remember crying when you lost at apple bobbing when you were five

but you don’t remember the date of the Revocation of the Treaty of Nantes

everybody remembers Johns Wilkes Booth

but only because he shot the president

in that movie The Fly

the scientist who is turned into a fly

forgets that he was one

I'm an insect who dreamed he was a man and loved it says the scientist

but now the dream is over and the insect is awake

I’d like to not remember asking my eighth grade friend Eddie

what a capella meant

and he says it means without banjo

and I say that can’t be true

and Eddie says it is

in ancient Rome capella was the word for banjo

the next week Mrs. Leblanc says

does anyone know what a capella means

and I stand up and yes it means without banjo

and the entire classroom turns around in its seats and looks at me

and laughs and says gyanh

girls I want to ask to the dance

say gyanh David!

it’s best if artists don’t remember too much

it interferes with their plagiarism

the word remember doesn’t even apply to the picture I have in my head

of you unbuttoning your shirt for the first time

because I see it every day though that was years ago

you’re so beautiful

when I think about you

I could just die

here I go gurrrkk

okay remember me