My memory isn’t much for tricks

I filed flashbulbs without meaning to

next to too many conversations

only my mind keeps alive.

I love counting on the minutiae

of my synapses

my hippocampal hindsight

to stop the extinction

of moments only I know.

But med school wants

me to use mnemonics

to memorize the material

catchy phrases

absurd acronyms

every topic needs

a good hook

that we hold like lifelines.

When I am old

I hope the mnemonics

no longer materialize

Those ghosts can’t save me anyway

Let my recall be left

to my own devices.

At the end

Let my neurons remember to hit play

so I can watch the chain reaction

of a thousand flashbulbs explode

Let me sink into the luminescent tide

of a life lived.