He follows me everywhere
spreading his meanness
all over the place.
He has a name, which I learned
as his meanness
got steadily worse.
He picks words
from my ears and eyelashes.
He robs me of faces.
He robs me of names.
He robs me of names
which go with familiar faces.
Thankfully when people note
my age and vacant eyes,
they tell me who they are.
“I am Linda Sauce.
We had a torrid affair
after I left my
second husband.”
“You were on my
dissertation committee.”
It is even meaner and crueler
that as a lifetime gardener
I have lost the names
of plants and flowers.
So if you see me on “A’ as
I am walking alone,
I am trying
the alphabet system
to pull up the name.
Hopefully, I will recall Zinnia
when I get to “Z.”
If not, a session with Western Gardens
may bring it up.
Then like the sinful 4th grader
I need to write it on
the board of my brain
100 times.
I keep careful score
127 plants and 100 blanks.
What irony.
The young have nothing
to remember and have
a clear memory chip.
While us old guys have
such richness of the past
stored wherever
Sadistic Joker Senility hid them.
Maybe evolution
will finally beat
Sadistic Joker Senility.
After all, this smart
old MAC can find
anything that was ever entered
into its memory bank.
So here is to cyber genetic implanting.
Doug Minnis 9/11/2010