when my memory suckled itself
between pink and red
it found some song – it was old
and it pushed play – stereo:
I heard its words and they were
the wrong words, they were my own words
I still knew them

later I found the right ones
and when the play button was pushed again
it played – that stereo:
so loud it broke the window’s glass

the water was flooding the place
so it sloshed in -- the song floated on top
I opened the drain – the stopper

as it escaped I saw a pollywog
swishing through the flow
and the pollywog told me that he
was the very last to go
2001