he's got a photographic memory
Phenomenal gift of recollection
to be able to call up a memory in a picture

ask him what he knows
he'll recite the entire census of 1695
who lived, who died,
who married who and what they owned

he could tell me
my entire family history
all the names of my ancestors
and their children
their children
their children

yet, I ask him,
"Dad what was it like when you were little?"
"I don't remember."