Aqu??, Ah??, All??

The poems within Aqu??, Ah??, All?? are a negotiation between speaker and memory. Memory informs our present, allows speculation towards the future, attempts to capture the past, and yet is rife with failures in its transmission. There are two voices within the text which attempt to navigate different aspects of memory. The main speaker is one of lamentation, reclamation, introspection, and speculation. This voice works towards reclamation of memory from a state of loss due to flaws of generational transmission, and the alteration of memory through regret and nostalgia. This voice strives to make meaning static, and struggles against memory???s ambiguous and dynamic nature. The second voice is that of the persona of Froggy which resists exploration, and is representative of the filter of a popular cultural lens, whom interrupts, tries to subvert and avoid the emotional tension of the work of memory. As the work proceeds, both voices begin to wear down, and take on each other???s aspects. In the end, the weight of the past and present are worn down and turn to speculation of utopian and dystopian possibilities, looking to the past, but being mindful of the present and future