Memory
William Kloefkorn
Only subscribers may read this in its entirety. What follows is a free preview, truncated midway through.
- Memory’s law: what we choose to say about our past becomes our past.
- Stephen Dunn, “Memory”
I choose therefore to say that I lost the fight
because I was afraid I’d win, afraid
I’d not be able to endure the sight of blood
on my opponent’s face. I choose to say this,
perhaps believe it, though over and
over again, when I’m not believing, I’m
cowering for another reason. Put simply, I
did not believe myself equal to my
classmate’s aggressive fists. Look: the little
menace was a dynamo. Had I not covered
up, he’d have broken every bone
on my moon-shaped countenance, which
induces me to say that I lost the first
because I didn’t want to know
the pain I had seen in so many comic books
