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The Lost Rhetoric of Memory
- Louisiana State University Press
- Chapter
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39 The Lost Rhetoric of Memory (for Cathy Smith Bowers) Each hour the memory of those already gone pads over to stretch out beside me, like a panther. Then their names come after, a litter of new kittens. Mother, Lonnie, Charles . . . —all different sizes but the same age, like the uniformity of wordless loss. Each time I try to put phrases to their going, it feels coarse, like shirts made from scraps, or the biscuits children bake in toy ovens—facsimiles smelling of salt, but full of lumps, raw dough, and thicker than my throat. ...