FIRST MEMORY
It is so clear, the first memory…
a deep, white, enamel sink,
soapy hands, soothing smoothness,
a cone of warmth from yellow light, above,
showering down on the bath
and me
the memory is so clear
i can still re-enter the experience to look
into the darkness beyond the light –
when i described what i could see,
folks in the know exclaimed,
“impossible! you were not yet 6 months
when you were moved from that house…”
Impossible or not, i remember.
in fact, my earliest memory goes back further –
it just can’t be as easily validated …
what i remember, distinctly clearly,
is the sensation of a dry cotton diaper on my powdered bottom –
so strong is this memory that i am able to discern
between the sensations of a powdered bottom
with or without diaper rash cream …
apparently, i was told, that when i was ‘found’
i had been abandoned for nearly 23 hours –
and i’d been in the same diaper for at least as long –
the story goes that when the diaper came off,
it peeled part of my skin with it –
i believe this to be true –
how else to explain the sense clarity of a memory
stuck in yesterday's timelessness?
NHT
©1986
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