I trace the circuit board
of a transparent USB
flash drive because it mocks
all my attempts to undo
patterns of control. I am
reading Martial’s epigrams
and that demands concision
on the surface level at least.
Without a power source,
the flash drive is all surface
and this seems to mirror
the Roman Empire and its
literature. The mass storage
controller demands attention
as does the NAND flash
memory chip. But being sensitised
to time as our situation demands
even when we’re fossicking
through old documents
leads me to fixate
on the crystal oscillator
which is compared by pundits
to a pendulum: without a time
signature our utterances
are lost. I am attracted (odd
as that might sound) to a RAM’s
volatility though have to trust in ROM’s
capacity to maintain cold storage.
Sucking on the ‘Standard
USB Plug’ won’t give me access
to all those poems I have stored
going forth like Martial’s
little books of epigrams,
and the metal tastes odd.
But it does something
to evoke memories
of what I’ve written
stretching back — approximations
whose volatility might
be just accurate enough
and more likely to keep
ideas fresh, images lively.
.
John Kinsella
.