Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

memory

Roots Twisted.

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by JW James.

 

like DNA spirals all the stories in my dreams
family trips to St. Joseph’s stepping
around gopher holes in the cemetery lawn
we always got lost it wasn’t like

they changed the place around on us
what is exhausting in a cemetery?
the stillness requires you to travel
great distances until finally we’d find

the two families the Irish section
a few rows from the Ukrainian we’d
stand there a few minutes dazed and
uninspired not much sense of respect

or prayer left in us so we’d pile into
the car and head for Rose Bakery
my dad would come out with a big
white box full of donuts that was

lunch confectioners sugar and jelly
chocolate and cream what is it about
a cemetery the grammar of the dead
carved into granite we always get

lost we want the sweet stuff and
voodoo we need seances to read
that grammar we want to pan for gold
we want our teeth gold-rimmed

 

“You Always Remembered My Name!”

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by David D. Horowitz. During the past several decades various polls have exposed Americans’ ignorance about our history, constitution, and government. Do we forget too much or do we ignore too much? Or both? To forget one must first have remembered, but too few people commit to memorizing details unless they are about themselves. It […]

Shaggy Dog.

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by Bruce E.R. Thompson. What did the Sufi master say to the hotdog vender? Wait. I’m sorry, I seem to have forgotten the punchline to that joke. I must be getting old. Give me a minute. If I think for a bit, perhaps I’ll remember what I was going to say. It was going to […]

Summer 1980.

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by Sean Murphy. Who am I to speak of the dead or even dare to presume it’s my place to do so? Because I was there, aware —even at ten—this was something nobody would ever forget. An era when news was on the news, and word of mouth, always the best way to convey everything […]

What Binds Us.

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by Barry Vitcov. These times are not about finding your socks in the vegetable bin or cauliflower in the sock drawer Those are simply lapses of distraction No, these times are about forgetting: doctrines, precedents, understanding, social mores, kindness, do unto others It’s about trying to remember permanence, values, empathy, commonality, and a social contract […]

Cyborg Memories.

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by Tom Ball. It was the year 2086 A.D that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease were cured. And eternal youth came soon after. Anyone born in the year 1971 or later, that was still alive, was perked up completely. They cured Alzheimer’s with new genetic therapy, which altered some of one’s genes. However, all people […]

All at Sea.

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by Cliff Beck. Sailing eastwards under a clear sky towards yet another day that once seemed so far away we follow the stars we have always known to steer by. I stand motionless at the prow between the bow wave which, like the treasure trove of memories saved from my journey to now, grows ever […]

On the Cusp of 77.

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by David Bolton. Take a gander at what came and what’s to come In the meantime, seek the amber of the setting sun After a day at the screen. my strained eyes hunger for beauty Along the way to no destination, I say hello to strangers, commenting on the perfect weather, the absence of crushing […]

A Crook in the Rain.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. There is too much forgetting. I hold my breath as if it will hold everything– press pause for us. An alarm chimes, the laundry is done. A car beeps in the distance, traffic moves on. I chide myself, don’t let the day’s distractions lead. Through the kitchen window, I pocket another […]

For an Acquaintance and His Wife with Alzheimer’s.

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by Barry Vitcov. Who are you to say I would not be there? After all these years, you still have some doubt that in the end, when the world seems unfair, you would be abandoned and left without someone knowing well your questions and fears. Although we’ve often talked of the unknown, with worry in […]