文章基本信息

Physics of Memory, The

Williams, Elizabeth

There are olives that taste like lemons

because the Romans' lemon groves

are as permanent as their roads.

There are islands in the Pacific

that have washed away because

they are underwater mountains

The American Indian still walks

the plain because he did, in fact,

love the white man (and woman), after all.

The mid-century Jew is now

invested in the riches of the soil of

Central Europe and makes new lives grow

My cells have completely

regenerated themselves three times over,

but there is still California in me.

... and Egypt and Mesopotamia and Outer Mongolia,

and Anastasia and the Virgin and the Virgin Queen,

and Tegucigalpa and Argentinean cowboys and cave paintings,

and the plague and Mount Olympus and centuries of shooting stars

All of the truths that have never been spoken

are there, in between the silences;

every universe is present in every moment.

ELIZABETH WILLIAMS studies multimedia design and photography at The University of the Arts, in Philadelphia.