mutant of memory

memory called,
a garbled mess in the receiver:

when the time comes
the innocents will need saving
and that savior will be me—
an addict, a coward, a fraud!

a worm in memory's apple,
deeply burrowed,
gnashing at my ego
year after year after year.

time sends a telegram,
it arrives late:
an unheeded warning
to stay away from unboring words.

to scaffold a feasible truth
to an errant mishap,
i chose magic.

dazzled in a fated well,
blackness boomeranged into me.
no drag on the fletching of time’s arrow
to go back
to understand
what i had yet to learn.

it is this:

eons are enemies.
a cruel crucible of time, mutation, selection
meiosis, mitosis.
a G where a C should have settled,
an A where a T should have been.

Elyse Hart is a poet and musician from Los Angeles. Her poetry has appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, The Los Angeles Press, Okay Donkey Mag, and others. In 2020, her composition "Five Poems of Mirabai for Flute and Soprano" won top prize at a competition through the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). The piece enjoyed two live performances in 2021. You may find more of her work on Instagram @elysehartpoetry or elysehart.com.