my brother and I have fragments of memories
pieces of what we think happened in our family
not just what our mother and father did to each other
but conversations between them and our aunts and uncles
visits with our grandparents or great-aunts
we know lightning strike shards of events
hints of relationships and phrases of character
a car an uncle owned and a hair style an aunt liked
we know our grandparents had no parents or cousins
or none anyone would speak of when we asked
“what could they possibly have done,” he asked me
“that meant nobody later would talk about them?”
we know our family like people know history
after watching tatters of newsreels
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