The Taste of Remembrance

The poet says that he has a photographic memory for emotions, that he can invoke a past emotional frame by invoking a moment, a memory linking to a complex emotional, visceral response. I asked him if this was about any one particular of his muses. He smiled softly and said "This brown eyed girl...".

The Taste of Remembrance

you reminded me of memory.
not a memory.
but memory.

that twisted lift of something.
something. something caught
on the roof of my mouth
like peanut butter.

but it is a soft mystery
that wafted in on winds
I had not smelled
since midnight in Venice,
with the jasmine
and the dreams
that coiled in eddies of air
caught in the shadows
that melted into you.

true to your nature.
true to my hunger.

your shoulders bare to my touch.
your eyes closed to my thoughts.
and all else open and warm
and something like music.
something like music
when it comes upon you
suddenly, but beautifully,
like a lover at first waking.

and memory tasted a lot
like your lips.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.