i remember when this photo was taken
a little me and a little she
sitting next to grandma on the couch
i might have been four
she would have been three
and the eye behind the lens
that was a mum at twenty-three

i know this memory is real
because i know what is on my head
just a blurry band in the picture
was a paper head dress of feathers
pushed out from a book with such things

i remember the old couch
and the texture of it on my fingers
and i remember my sister next to us
small and quiet and easy to annoy

this is a memory
taken by she
who is also now
a memory,
my memory
gone, except in me