Pour vor – foto Smith
“I’ve got the longest short term memory gap in town.” – Smith
I’ve wanted to use that line for thirty years, even though I stopped drinking 21 years ago. Always thought it’d make a great country & western song. Or blues. So I finally broke down and did it. Hopefully be recording this with Apartment One tomorrow.
I had a LOT of memory gaps in 1981-85 living mostly on alcohol illegally on the 4th floor of a downtown warehouse. Had 3,000 square feet, four 12 foot windows overlooking Lake Erie and nine more facing downtown Cleveland, Terminal Tower five blocks away — for which I paid all of $300 rent.
Booze Lose Blues
I may have a small brain
and limited social skills
am frequently off aim
done caused a lot of ill
but one thing I can claim as crown
I got the longest short term memory gap in town
Lost my dog to the pound
my gal to a better feller
I totter around
trying not to teeter
but there’s just too much losing ground
when my main line memory map’s down
The liquor cuts a whole in my pocket
while packing pounds upon my frame
people whispering I’ve lost it
chasing the high instead of the game
and they’re right that I’m going down
with the longest short term memory gap in town
I forget my excuses cuz there’s no one home
lose out on sex cuz there ain’t no bone
introduce myself to folks already known
forget how many friendships I’ve blown
in the school of fool I’m cap and gown
the longest short term memory gap around
That thing I just said that I can’t remember
will come back to haunt my future en mass
my misses I cover and the rest dissemble
I stink of self and resemble an ass
my sins replicate clones of their own
in long term short memory grasp of the grown
Got holes in my knees from concrete crawling
weepy cheeks from tear beer crying
it’s hard to walk cuz I keep falling
if I said this was fun I’d be lying
but I keep losing truth like a clown
living in long time short term memory gap town
— Smith, 2.13.2012
Bad advice – foto Smith
interesting.. i guess I didn’t realize that people get memory lapses with chronic alcohol.. just getting drunk. But never having been a drinker I guess that’s why.
I wonder if that is why alcoholics often don’t take responsibility for their own behavior? … because they often don’t remember it.
Having these thoughts because someone I know is newly into sobriety trying to make a go of it and he mentioned the memory lapses and regret at not relizing how he was treating people around him…
I am always surprised that people continue to be productive long after they have a problem. And that keeps them from acknowledging they have a problem or doing something to deal with it.
It seems to take a “fall” of some sort or their lives to unravel before they realize they need to help themselves.
good poem… made me think back on how hard it was to live with my Dad when he was drinking… my life as a child and teenager was hell. I am grateful I got the opportunity to know the sort of man he was when he was sober before he passed away… very kind and gentle.