Have I Forgotten to Remember to Answer the Right Question?

[Found this image here.]

From whiskey river (highlighted portion):

The Difficult Simplicity of Certain Contemplations

Tapping a tarot card with her dusky finger,
the woman tells me
sit with your emptiness,
in time answers will come.
She says I know them all and only must remember.

My friend tells me I must decide what is enough,
then live with it.

Even my shiny-suited banker waxes wise, asks me
if I think rich people are happier than I.

But always there’s the knowledge
of how all this will end.

In between
we try to love a life that’s like a man who can’t commit–
a little restless, always vague
when someone asks when are you going to. . . ,

a life that’s like the ragged, feral cat
mewling at the door,
insinuating with its cheek and hunger.
We give it mercy or rough blame.

I’ll tell you what love of this life is. It’s looking up
through trees newly bare of leaves
and seeing there the oldest road,
a broken line of white stars
stretching out across the sky.

It’s thinking,
this could almost be enough.

(Susan Elbe [source])

Not from whiskey river:

A Yes-or-No Answer

Have you read The Story of O?
Will Buffalo sink under all that snow?
Do you double-dip your Oreo?
Please answer the question yes or no.

The surgery — was it touch-and-go?
Does a corpse’s hair continue to grow?
Remember when we were simpatico?
Answer my question: yes or no.

Do you want another cup of joe?
If I touch you, is it apropos?
Are you certain that you’re hetero?
Is your answer yes or no?

Did you lie to me, like Pinocchio?
Was forbidden fruit the cause of woe?
Did you ever sleep with that so-and-so?
Just answer the question: yes or no.

Did you nail her under the mistletoe?
Will you spare me the details, blow by blow?
Did she sing sweeter than a vireo?
I need an answer. Yes or no?

Are we still a dog-and-pony show?
Shall we change partners and do-si-do?
Are you planning on the old heave-ho?
Check an answer: Yes ☐   No ☐.

Was something blue in my trousseau?
Do you take this man, this woman? Oh,
but that was very long ago.
Did we say yes? Did we say no?

For better or for worse? Ergo,
shall we play it over, in slow mo?
Do you love me? Do you know?
Maybe yes. Maybe no.

(Jane Shore [source])

…and:

We, in a glance, perceive three wine glasses on the table; Funes saw all the shoots, clusters, and grapes of the vine. He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south at dawn on the 30th of April of 1882, and he could compare them in his recollection with the marbled grain in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once, and with the lines in the spray which an oar raised in the Rio Negro on the eve of the battle of the Quebracho. These recollections were not simple; each visual image was linked to muscular sensations, thermal sensations, etc. He could reconstruct all his dreams, all his fancies. Two or three times he had reconstructed an entire day. He told me: I have more memories in myself alone than all men have had since the world was a world. And again: My dreams are like your vigils. And again, toward dawn: My memory, sir, is like a garbage disposal.

A circumference on a blackboard, a rectangular triangle, a rhomb, are forms which we can fully intuit; the same held true with Ireneo for the tempestuous mane of a stallion, a herd of cattle in a pass, the ever-changing flame or the innumerable ash, the many faces of a dead man during the course of a protracted wake. He could perceive I do not know how many stars in the sky.

…It was not only difficult for him to understand that the generic term dog embraced so many unlike specimens of differing sizes and different forms; he was disturbed by the fact that a dog at three-fourteen (seen in profile) should have the same name as the dog at three-fifteen (seen from the front).

(Jorge Luis Borges, from Funes the Memorious [source])

The indie band Low vs Diamond seems to have come out of nowhere, or maybe (per usual) I just slept through the whole thing. Rolling Stone selected their song “Don’t Forget Sister” — from their first album — as #59 in the magazine’s list of The 100 Best Singles of 2008, saying:

This elegiac tune from these L.A. newcomers is the year’s best arena-rock anthem never to hit an arena. The chord progression echoes “Baba O’Riley”; the vocals are styled after Bono.

(The reference to “Baba O’Riley” caught my eye at once — for reasons probably no one but I will probably remember. Or forget, for that matter.)

Yeah: the year’s best arena-rock anthem never to hit an arena. Which reminds me of the line by Firesign Theatre, on their Everything You Know Is Wrong album: “Benjamin Franklin: the only President of the United States… who was never President of the United States.” Anyway, here’s the video for “Don’t Forget Sister” (lyrics below).

Lyrics:

Don’t Forget Sister
by Low vs Diamond

Poor boy
You played it cool with the rich boys
You messed around with their rich toys
You tried so hard to play it smooth

The page turned to the chapter with the best line
You thought the book was never-ending
You thought you’d get to drink their wine

Sister came down from Watertown with the message:
”Your twisted head is getting messed with
I can see it in your eyes
Left out
You couldn’t wait to be bought out
So you went ahead and sold out
With your twenty-dollar lies”

And she said,
”Don’t forget, sister
You should always be true
You come from a good home
I won’t forget you”

Drowning in a city filled with blue blood
Can’t you see your blood is thicker?
You don’t need that fancy car

Locked up in the middle of a sick dream
So give up your fascination
And remember who you are
So don’t forget, sister
You should always be true
You come from a good home
I won’t forget you

Burned out like a candle that had gone out
Getting asked a lot of questions
But my answers are all wrong

I need you
Give tomorrow to be with you
Show me where I need to run to
But the truth is that you’re gone

So don’t forget, sister
You should always be true
You come from a good home
I won’t forget you

No, I won’t forget, sister
I’ll always be true
‘Cause we came from a good home
And I won’t forget you

Sister, take me away with you
Sister, take me away with you
Sister, take me away with you
Sister, take me away with you