Memory
by John Sibley Williams

  1. Like a house,
  2. it depends on structure.
  3. Walls to withstand weather and dust.
  4. A window to release the unbreathable air.
  1. There must be floorboards beneath.
  2. Photographs to keep us from falling
  3. too far from the past.
  4. And within the frame
  5. that limits our bodies
  6. glass
  7. and an image grown distant.
  1. The how of remembering
  2. runs the full length of the mirror
  3. and is contained, and changed.
  4. To touch the surface
  5. behind our surface
  6. is an act of self-translucence.
  1. Memory is a decision,
  2. like loving,
  3. like where to drive the nails
  4. into everything we’ve loved
  5. intensely, for a time.
Packingtown Review – Vol.6, Winter 2014/2015

John Sibley Williams is the author of eight collections, most recently Controlled Hallucinations (FutureCycle Press, 2013). Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, he serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and Board Member of the Friends of William Stafford. Previous publishing credits include: American Literary Review, Third Coast, Nimrod International Journal, Rio Grande Review, Inkwell, Cider Press Review, Bryant Literary Review, RHINO, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

  1. Chris Waters
    Vincent, Not Alonepoetry