Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Amnesiac” by Greg Santos, first published in Poetry Pause in July 2020.

---

Amnesiac

By Greg Santos

It all happened a long time ago.

Do you remember?

I think there was a nun, a war,

the phone call that changed everyone’s lives.

No, how could you remember? You weren’t even there.

But now that I think about it, neither was I.

That moment when you have something to say but

forget what you’ve been saying mid-sentence,

I have that right now.

I’ve had that problem my entire life.

My history is made of tweezers

removing a splinter from a child’s

palm,

afternoon swims in the plastic turtle pool out back,

white bread salami sandwiches.

Thank goodness history isn’t all goblets and tapestries.

Reaching a clearing in the woods,

I take a moment to consider my travels.

The villagers were right:

the view is, indeed, magnificent.

---

Copyright © Greg Santos

Previously published in Ghost Face (DC Books, 2020). First appeared in Poetry Pause on July 2, 2020.

Greg Santos is a poet, editor, and educator. He is the author of Ghost Face and several other collections of poetry. He is an adoptee of Cambodian, Spanish and Portuguese descent. He lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal with his wife and two children.

---

Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!

---