Yes, the fruit fly erases memories it no longer needs. Lab tested linking bad odors and food, when the offers smelled awful, it knew there would be food. Days later we see given only the bad odor, and no food, the fly blows off the first memory, bad odor = food. Just think now of the earthquake woman warning the dusty rescuers in Port au Prince, the lower part of her right leg flattened, I’m a dancer, I’m a dancer! Don’t cut off my leg! How they do. After anesthetic: after the tea: sudden bright halt of receding sea: she will think of dance, the light- footed leap: the memory of walking such tangled dream throes of algae and weed, the two-beat thump of leaving her bed: though this morning brings a lit space of sheet where foot, ankle and knee are gone, as she puzzles the mystery of two shoes.
John Allman | The Birds Contents | Mudlark No. 48 (2012)