Say Cheese - the Snapshot Moment > More Say Cheese - the Snapshot Moment

What the Dead Remember by Maj Ragain
A Companion Poem to Jessica Damen’s Painting Say Cheese

Say persimmon, say parson,
No smiles for the camera,
that dark room, its blink of light.
Say purse, cargo of those lost years.
I am on the right, bare midriff,
cherry blossom pink, new skin
stretched over the drumhead,
a forest of knees,
Barbara to the left,
Sharon between us.

No one remembers my name,
I have forgotten it,
broken letters in my mouth.
Wherever you are, reading this,
I grew up not far from you,
though I can no longer recall
the street or the town.

There were no trees.

A dirt path led down to a dry creek bed. Follow the creek north to a grass field rowed with stones.

My name is written on a flat, polished stone.
I cannot find read it.

Say it for me.

- Maj Ragain