la persistencia de memoria

i was taping reminders to the oxygen
when i was confronted by a succession of images;
the blinking red light of a video camera,
the needle of a phonograph, an open eye,
an open tongue, an open ear.
i illustrated them with a pencil on a napkin,
outlining them in the voids surrounding rips and stains.
i pinned them to the humidity in the air,
but the paper dissolved in the moisture, and i
dissolved into grief, into the voids
where i've forgotten something but don't know what.
i scratched reminders into my hands with a pen,
and the words bled through into my arteries;
i accepted the threat of ink poisoning
so that the threat of forgetting was past.
and still when lightning struck my radio,
i didn't replace it for the same reason that
i burned all my cassettes; because i didn't care to remember back that far.