The Month of Remember

February 31st Is my birthday in an alternate universe The last of the unimportant days From there I make my way, raw and unrehearsed

I envision with apprehension—with superstitious caution The old-man-me to be and how much joy he packed away How much he collected along the way The statistical data of smiles/day

I yearn to enjoy my days as I wish It’s a small matter of making a simple choice The only thing keeping my from this Is to truly listen to my inner voice

Too many times we say Go ahead, make my day I’m going to make my own days of my own design With my own rain or shine, my own length of time

Space-Time is relative to how you pack it You need to grab it and bring it to bear Go hyperspatial, leave none to spare Collect the memories and enjoy it while it’s there

Make up your own scale, who says the one we know is right? Focus your mind with all your might Hold on a second —seize the cesium— stretch an hour — give the months new names And create the month of Remember

JArtB

July 4, 2021

Footnotes:

🔸 Thought instigator—a song by the Black Pumas called Oct 33.

🔹 Concepts learned from reading the book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Josh Foer

🔹 The year 46 BCE was 445 days long to get on track with the new Julian Calendar

🔹 Early Rome’s lunar calendar was only 10 months long. There was no January and February- the time between December and March was deemed unimportant because it had nothing to do with the harvest.

🔹 A second, defined as about 9 billion oscillations of the cesium atom (CS-133)