Guni-guni*

Memory is always changing the ways 
we think of things— Slipped into the pages
of an obscure book: a ticket from the World's
Fair. The picture of a woman wearing Yale
padlocks for earrings, another of a white
army officer posing in front of a hut, each 
hand cupping the bare breast of a native girl 
flanking him on either side. I don’t agree 
with what the last one insinuates: they
aren't smiling with hospitality or pleasure. 
There is nothing to caption in the manner
of a potentiality. The smell of burning 
lingers in the air long after the carnivals
have taken down their tents and flags.



* Guni-guni; [noun; reduplicative]  hallucination; imagination; illusion; figment; mirage