The pit in my stomach
When in a game of hide and seek
I suddenly discovered no one could find me

The short sharp instant
Of asphyxiation during my very first dive
When I thought I was literally dead in that water

The ecstatic cartwheels 
My heart turned with its unbridled joy
When I proposed and she said yes with her eyes 

The jet plane feeling
When for the very first time
I sped my car up onto an Interstate’s on-ramp

The subatomic smallness
That shrank me as I stood on the rim
Of the Grand Canyon and looked down its boundless abyss

The satiated silence
Of a moonlit walk when nothing was said
Yet everything was understood by our two clasped hands

The wave of breathless grief
That left me shaking like an aspen in a winter wind
When I watched him draw a breath and never let it out again

Memories time cannot erase
I often reach for them in my little treasure chest
What we have is only what we remember, as a great poet once said