Monday Poem

"... scientists (have been) able to trick (fruit) flies into having associative
memories of events they had not actually experienced.” 
 ............................................................  –Nature News, Oct 15, 2009

Which is Which or Who is Whom

They say fruit fly brains
may be made to have memories
of where they've never flown

I’m like a fruit fly in this way
since I remember things I’m not sure
(but feel) I’ve known

events that may be dreams,
or fictions so often told
they’re recollections, or

heart-breaking tales so well rehearsed  
that empathetic neurons,
like the mushroom body
of a fruit fly brain,
are excited to the point of déjà vu
remembering an explicit past not mine but
maybe one experienced by you

hours that seem like yesterday
recalled as clearly
as if each sunrise you’ve seen
had been seen by me,
each brilliant tinted crimson fall,
each blazing summer,
each fresh green spring recalled
as if they’d been interred
within a nest of neurons
dark as a womb
to be resurrected
by a universal heart
not so particular about

which is which or
who is whom

by Jim Culleny
Oct 18,2009