This poem 'The Memory Tray' has a little epigraph by Wittgenstein.

The Memory Tray

 

The language game “I am afraid” already contains the object

There was a milk tooth, with the string that pulled it.
There was a letter in your father’s hand.
Welcome to the real world.
There was a chocolate heart wrapped in red tin foil.
There was, embarrassment,
A contraceptive. A sanitary towel.
There was a can of laughter.
Can you remember?

Remember I remember I remember.
There was a photograph of somebody I never knew
But knew the name of; there was a tiny paper box,
So beautiful. There was an object
That I can’t quite place.
Here instead is my dream.
I remember it in order: (1) A big man
(2) with his big hands (3) in a maze who
Sees (4) a flock of birds, then,
Stoops (5) to tie his shoes, his fingers
(6’s and 7’s) fingering the laces sadly
Like the drooping heads of flowers….

from The Memory Tray (Seren, 1994), © Deryn Rees-Jones 1994, used by permission of the author and the publisher.

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