Thursday, December 2, 2010

1217. I HAD MEMORIES (in memoriam: Larry Walker)

I HAD MEMORIES
(where the newly dead meet
those already long dead)
I had memories of the future - why is that?
I recalled every item in precise detail :
the marmoset and the beaver, those villagers
wearing furs, the axe-man, picking his way across
the frozen river. I was there, and all of them, together.
The texture of the world was old, but the future
looked better than ever. Same place, different
picture. Alexander Hamilton, meet Alex Graham
Bell. Benjamin Franklin, meet Franklin Pierce.
Like textbook greeters at the edge of a crowd,
we cheer them on, they hear us, loud as we
can be. It's like this for you and it's like
this for me. I had memories of the
future, and they came to be.

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