Poetry • by Pearl Pirie
PLAY AUDIO VERSION: voice of Pearl Pirie
a day's strategies for shrunken working memory
in grocery aisle multitask the trial of traffic jammed carts and price of jam and let mouth keep pattering until I'm ready to check in with my list in time to hear ...peanut butter, tanned milk...
hold up. tanned milk? do I mean chocolate milk or canned milk? rack the neutral duck at why I would want either. remember a recipe. canned, tinned, same-same. kay.
let the body carry what it can. at home, memories are carried in the gestures let the muscle move to retain scissors with fingers miming over the crossing of the room.
while I wipe the counter, seeking pudding, the wrist keeps up a reminder rhythm. one mimes a twisted fist -- I am looking for a spoon. a spoon. that echo continues
while the other hand gets the bowl. what am I doing? right hand removes the question by its motion answering: spoon, spoon, get a spoon.
there’s another rhythm rising to remind BA de de de BA BA de de de BA BA de de de BA? BA de in the car
my soundtrack goes autoloop on reminding what I should check on -- jacket in the car? strategies for impaired short term memory hum as my legs have begun to look for keys
while eye and fingers are after keys -- not in bag, not in bathroom, not on desk, not on counter not under newspaper, not in shopping bags, check in with tongue... jack at in the kar
jack at in dakar jack a Tin dakar listen, let it repeat until I'm sure it is keeping an accurate playback off of tongue. listen for the sound stack to slip sideways from
jack at india dakar. jacket. in the car?. realize the mattress of bladder pressed its pee urgently under the duvet of waist. jackajackajacka. wha?
jacket. in the car? jacket. in the car? side tracked. hand is cupped like a lego man. what am I in the midst of. water. where is glass. got it. and I drink. and I eat. a rhythm back beats
BA de de de BA BA de de de BA why do I want the car? what do I need for the car? keys. rejoin the sum of the dotted lines of travel for the key.
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[Distillate © HA&L + Pearl Pirie | {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]
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