Monday

memory factor(y)

 

i did not photograph it but i can remember it clearly

i saw an amazing cloud formation yesterday
it was one  the the most amazing formations i have ever witnessed
i was driving and i was not alone so i felt that i should not make a photo
but i really should have because my passenger would have fully
understood having been in situations like this with me her entire life

i also do not have a photograph of the number one most
amazing cloud formation i have ever seen yet in my life
that was in Aurora Colorado in July of 1987 specifically
back in the days where you just had to remember things forever
this i recall because it was breathtaking enough to stop all activity

thunderhead development at the border of the plains and Rockies
the deepness of the sky blue contrasted with purest of cloud white
followed by a life altering double rainbow’s refractions of refractions
if i painted the scene i would be accused of creating cartoonish fiction
because the sky has never looked as perfect or strange they would say

i do not know if what i remember is similar to or different from
what other people remember over time or across eras
this morning i remembered two of the worst headaches i ever had
i remembered that Emily gave me a skateboarding book in 1975
i am sometimes accused of not forgetting things but i know better

i was driving north yesterday in the orange-ness of golden hour light
and uncharacteristically to the east was what looked like the incoming
mammoth tidal waves of my serial dreams but they were not liquid
they were mountains of clouds low on the horizon with the white
of the clouds painted orange tan gray and gold on the lowest third

had i a convenient vantage to make the perfect photograph
maybe i would have taken the opportunity or courage to do it
yet there was no compulsive angst in not making this one
it was just an uncharacteristically peaceful knowledge that
i may remember this moment of my life at some other moment

memories are gifts for the future