Photographic Memory

The thing about photographs is:
Sometimes when you look, you remember things
that were never really in your memory at all.

I guess that's the thing about memory, really.
It's infinitely creative.

Like that one photograph bursting with balloons,
taken at a party in my father's office. In the midst of the rubbery celebration
my small face peeks out, and a striped arm, and a pink moccassin.

I saw that photo and now I can remember the moment,
being short, and thrilled, in a sea of balloons. I had never
remembered it before.

I guess that's the thing about memory, really.
It's infinitely creative.

It's a comforting thought; when I don't have the time,
or the money, or the patience, to do marvelous things,
I can always just remember

that I did.