a wink of memory

These tales she tells are as real as rainwater under the next day's sun,
and still she tells them anyway

the way a film developer flips through your pics and imagines being there

except these pics are too volumnous for one head to hold
so she selects the grandest three - the water buffalo, of eating discolored apples,
ordering buttermilk because she loved its two ingredients -
and repeats them like mantra

for she knows memory is fallible
for a long time she held grandfather's scent
once lost it could not be relearned

hence each telling of each tale reminds her anew
of our lie that humans have roots