Saturday, March 16, 2019

Memories of the Future


There seems to be a Hall of Fame for everything;
And an International Museum for All Things;
And a National Day for everything else;
Plus a Facebook page,
a Twitter feed,
and a LinkedIn Group
to connect them all, and then some.
Mr. Warhol’s “fifteen minutes of fame” has become
a serial virus of momentary flashes
in the seemingly eternal
digital ball of string
that is the internet.
What is memory?
Is there a collective universal memory that is storing all the experiences of the ages?
What is legacy?
What do we leave behind when we go on to the next level of existence?
What is immortality?
Do all of us live forever, one way or another?
What is heritage?
Does it change us when we discover the lives of our ancestors?
Will one small blip in the digital libraries
of all the devices in the world
remain forever for someone to discover
untold ages from now?