Audio: Read by the author.

Like echoes in a seashell
held gingerly to the ear,
bright as a mother and baby’s please,
early memory is white canvas:

held gingerly for years,
the baby laughs or sobs or sleeps.
Bright as a mother and baby’s please
—remembered as peas and appease—

the baby laughs or sobs or sleeps and
sounds separate from noise to events,
remembered as peas and appease.
While she listens and hears,

sounds separate from noise to events,
from blur to fidelity.
While the girl listens and hears,
she recalls peas as appease.

Both blur and fidelity
echo in her seashell.
She recalls pleas and please
bright as her mother and her baby’s peas.