Amazed I went through the whole day
without thinking about what I dreamed
last night and yet just a little jostle
and I’m back somehow telling a story
on The Moth podcast about the snowstorm
in Seattle some thirty one years ago my mind
copy editing the perfect improvised script
as if the memory refined itself into prose
I can only recite unconsciously somewhere
it must be written as it happened pushing
the van on the way to the service project
packing bags of unbroken ramen for the hungry
my mom navigating the drive down the hill
the sand providing no traction for cars
abandoned on the interstate until the news
reminded people to pick them up I spent
the week before vacation off from school
round about the time the floating highway
sank because part of it actually floated
maybe memory is just below the surface
in perfect prose recited for the audience
always waiting for the unconscious
to make itself known before it is forgotten
written on the universe to uncover another day
Joshua Keiter 