i remember

i remember a moment when i was writing a poem
and it was the best moment in my life - just
the words and i trying to hash things out
over a glass of cheap wino wine, maybe
a smoke or two to whittle away the
time.

i remember:
being loved.
being lied to.
\"just being.\"

i remember to put my seatbelt on occasionally.

i remember too often how to forget how to laugh.

REM embers of the night before are extinguished.

i remember the couch and the way it gives me a backache.

i remember being alone with no one else around.

i remember reading bukowski in bed with crackers
because of his one story or poem.

i remember reading henry miller for the first time.

i remember remembering moments even further back.

i remember a girl (illinois jen) being frightened
by one of my poetry journals because i wrote side-
ways and upside down, undecipherable, when poetry
was my only mistress and the nights were long and
days were for sleeping.

i remember me.

i really do.