MEM RY AND C GNITI N – Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga

Will my mother remember who I am
The next time I see her?
Last time I was her brother, this time I’m my father
Cognition fades as neurons fail

The next time I see her
I may be nothing but a stranger
Cognition fades as neurons fail
Memory tattered, shattered and shade

I may be nothing but a stranger
Last time I was her brother, this time I’m my father
Memory tattered, shattered and shade
Will my mother remember who I am?

Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga
Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga is Poet Laureate Emeritus for Lake County, CA and has been on San Francisco’s National Poetry Slam team for three years. Currently working on a novel, he has worked as an Arts Educator with YouthSpeaks and Writers Corps. He is a writers workshop facilitator and hosts literary events. His mother, Aurora Marlene, lives in a care facility in Sonora CA.

Ginny Fang
Ginny Fang makes art and lives in San Francisco. Initially drawn to nearly achromatic water-based mediums and the immediate gratification of large, abstracted figurative drawing on paper, she more recently expanded her exploration to embrace color and the slower meditation of oil painting.