afterwards

scientists say

matter

or energy

cannot be created or destroyed

only conserved

or changed

is there a physics

a chemistry of memory

a weight or worth

to some spiritual commodity

when remembered

but when it’s

irretrievable

unknown

forgotten by all

is it nothing then

or matter stored for another time

is there more of it

after sharing

can it change in the telling

the turn of the tale

after words

does memory matter

waiting to be retrieved

there in the soil

beneath the stone and grass

Barry DeCarli

September 23, 2016

On Hammond Pond

©Barry DeCarli