In this version, memory
In this version, memory
is a lexicon shared with a hare
hair queuing down a holy man’s back
a man wholly inscrutable & elaborate
unless he’s not elaborate, just a witness
who sees why we run and run and run
which is why y is merely a number
a number no more wrong in heaven/or
the unknowable end of a telescope
the end of all that’s never remembered
every memory and advantage called
into question and what could be more
advantageous although where is the key
to that power—in Jelly Roll’s player piano,
its flat keys upended, its sharps morose…
hair queuing down a holy man’s back
a man wholly inscrutable & elaborate
unless he’s not elaborate, just a witness
who sees why we run and run and run
which is why y is merely a number
a number no more wrong in heaven/or
the unknowable end of a telescope
the end of all that’s never remembered
every memory and advantage called
into question and what could be more
advantageous although where is the key
to that power—in Jelly Roll’s player piano,
its flat keys upended, its sharps morose…
Lynne Thompson served as Los Angeles’ 4th Poet Laureate and received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. In September 2024, she represented Los Angeles at the Cultural Olympiad’s Poétique Marathon in Paris. Thompson is the author of four collections of poetry: Beg No Pardon, Start With A Small Guitar, Fretwork, and Blue on a Blue Palette. A lawyer by training and the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, Thompson serves on the Boards of The Poetry Foundation, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Scripps College where she served a four year term as Chair of the Board of Trustees. She currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of Cave Canem, a literary nonprofit organization based in New York.