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What I Remember and What I Don’t
Mark Nemeth

I was eight.
After church, we drove to someone’s house—
maybe his name was Harvey—on dusty,
pale dirt roads, halfway out to Inyokern.
I have no idea why.
We parked on a gravel driveway
next to a creosote bush.
The house faced north.
Harvey, or whoever,
was watching football, which my parents rarely did.
There were green couches, covered with clear vinyl.
No memory of Mrs. Harvey, but she was there.
Maybe we ate some cookies.
The football game was in overtime.
John Jefferson caught a long pass
two yards short of the goal line,
fell to the ground, untouched,
and rolled into the end zone.
The Chargers beat the Raiders.

—
Mark Nemeth holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering and works as an engineer for a federal water management agency. His research has been published in the Journal of Hydrology and the International Journal of River Basin Management. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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