Kept for then

All must be captured,
ingrained,
etched,
scored into the canyons,
and cliffs of the temporal
neuron mind.

kept for then

the clattle of silver maple
when the leaves turn over,
beta to the alpha of the rain,

The biddy gossip of the palms
when Cuba threw that whirling bitch your way,
siding shattered,
families displaced,
when the atheist’s were right,
and Don’s boat was in your backyard.

The lilting NY prattle of How-wad CO-sell,
Uncle Charlie held tightly to that…
and to Norelco, Brylcream, and cigarette jingles.
“I’ve got the time, if you’ve got the dime”
“Cigar? Cigarette? Tiparillo?”

kept for then

Marta told me she fucked James Bond.
His name was Jim Connelly.
They were married 40 years.
I tucked her in and turned out the light.
Another buzzer rang down the hall.

It all must be captured,
a reality stored
for when the walls thin
and life, as skin grows transparent.

kept for then

The effervescent sound of a cap released,
a champagne cork,
the taste of his kiss - that bright,
first New Year passing,
that spirit
that lit you up like a torch,
the walls of your cave astonishing you.

kept, for the first scents of summer,
mown grass, fresias,
vital cranial keepsakes…
of tomatoes on the vine,
ozone on the sky,
luminescence lilting in the warm summer dark.

All must be captured,
recorded,
stored in our Krajillabytes of febrile DNA.

kept for then

for when we need the sanity,
when we need to really know we Were.

…to remember the Beatles,
Sinatra, and Apollo,
the iPhone, MLK,
Chernobyl and the tower’s demise.

We can hold on to Viet Nam
We can remember The Floyd
and the Wall coming down.
Yesterday and “Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!”.

kept for then