Re-learning

Today I sucked on a mango seedling
and asked my mother for instructions on
how I did it as a child

I wondered how I had forgotten or
perhaps my mind thought my body had
deliberately mislaid that information

That piece of affective memory which
cannot really be relegated to the margins
of a childhood lived in another land

Today I was rained on in the market
by a monsoon cloud turning grey
and I laughed and remembered

The joy of dancing with wet hair and
then running indoors to dry it under a fan
whizzing past a white ceiling

That rush of air now comes back with
a flash that was stored and has been
restored at least for the journey back