that must be the final indignity the thought that comes and goes explodes vanishes like some mythical gossamer thing that drifts in your mind the vision that completely disappears as if some invisible sprite had swiped it from some troublesome cobweb in your brain and hustled it away that image that feeling that number that person's eyes nose mouth that remembrance that funny thing you said at some raucous party a few years ago or was it many years ago? you can almost hear the laughter from the crowd as if you were there again but what was it you said exactly?
and what about that old neighbor you liked so much the one who died shoveling snow? a man you knew for twenty years and now you can only vaguely recall his body sprawled out at the end of his driveway now you can't even summon his name what was his name? what was it?
you would be grateful now to dredge up the very first time you met your future in-laws your daughter's first dance recital your grandson's first soccer match or even that poem you revisited last night before you fell asleep that poem your wife shared with you what was that poem about? what was the title? the audacious first line? all the words and clever alliteration all reduced to a hazy blur dissipating like those antacid tablets that fizzed into a seltzery four ounces swirling midway down a plain white dixie cup you left abandoned forgotten on the bathroom counter hours ago...could even discomfort even pain be erased so quickly so easily so thoroughly?