THINGS FORGOTTEN

First words from Big Grant.

Three telephone bills,
a month's rent,
a sum of money no larger than $50
due to Slabaugh.

The sounds of a pipe organ.

The shape of his father's hands.

The feeling of a straight country road.

To say goodbye.

Polly's shoe size
and the way her face peeks from under a hat.

The first name of his favorite aunt.

The strength of his labor.

Never to fear solitude.

___

"Things Forgotten" is a part of a larger work that I'm still dragging through gaps and turns. I like playing with excluded middles, waste, misfits. For every memory we have, we probably have lost 10 others. The idea of a character's lost memories as a sort of sum total of the person made me feel creepy.