R.E. Slater - Eidetic Memory

Eidetic Memory

by R.E. Slater

It was thundering outside.

Heavy wet rain was falling hard.
    It mimicked my tumult within -

    I had suddenly become immersed

    in a flood of  forgotten lifetimes.

Moments of vivid recall began

replaying across my soul,

    moments I had experienced

    came, and went, with a suddenness.

My past was strongly present -

and it was surprisingly real.

Bygone memories rumbled

across my being, falling hard.

Lost moments relived again

as I had once experienced them

    raced across my mind's eye -

    and stayed within, percolating.

Like connected streams

of personal reawakening.

    I could not tell any difference
    between now nor then -
    between today nor yesterday.

Long, forgotten experiences

I shouldn't have remembered

were recalled in florid detail.
Each echoing across my being
    without bidding to come in,

    remained, persisted, then left.
It was the distance of the memory

that startled me all the more -

    they came as a great absence
    then stubbornly refused my
    wishes to not enter within.

Outside, the thunder rumbled.
The early spring rain fell violently.
Within, my conscious being
was re-living ancient days.
Once believed forgotten -

    but apparently not unlost.

Held just beneath the surface.

I ached across the years -
    the missed relationships,
    the missed moments,
gone, alive, absent, undead.

R.E. Slater

March 6, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

*Eidetic memory is the rare, short-term ability to recall images, sounds, or objects with high-definition precision and vividness, often described as a "mental photograph" that lasts for a few minutes. Primarily found in children, it acts as an afterimage, where individuals can "scan" an image in their mind after it is removed. It is mostly visual but can also be full sensory. It is rare, estimated at 2-10% in children, and nearly nonexistent in adults. The memories are not a perfect recall and can hold distortion or error, and fall within the category of experiential psychological phenomena.