In Alberto RiosÆ Seniors, the place is memory, in particular the memory of childhood. The poet remembers this place primarily from sexual and emotional cues. His first memory of is a boy who ôcuts a holeö in his LeviÆs so he can ôflop himself out in classö behind the girls (Rios 1). This memory is spurred by a recollection of sexual behavior but also of emotion. The other boys think this shows a lot of ôguts.ö The speaker is also drawn back to this place of childhood by memories of KongaÆs weeping when nobody wants to see his ôrubber band trickàanymoreö (Rios 1). This memory is not only triggered by the remembrance of KongaÆs emotion over the loss of impact of his trick, but also by the painful memories of the speaker when KongaÆs parents ôtook him away foreverö (Rios 1).
The speaker is also pulled back to this childhood place of memory by his recollections of his first sexual activity with a girl. He remembers being in the ôcatholic darknessö when he ôgot a French kissö (Rios 1). He might likely have gotten his first kiss in a catholic confessional, or perhaps the catholic darkness refers to the ôsinö of kissing a girl to who one is not married. The poet keeps the speakerÆs memories of these moment and of this place in childhood memory from being clichT, by calling attention to the nature of memory and ômoments.ö The ôcircumstancesö of these memories ôis goneàthe true circumstances about us all them are goneö (Rios 1). Later, the speaker tells us that of this place and these memories, ônothing comes more than the moment: always nowö (Rios 1). Thus, we see that though the speaker can remember these moments, they are only moments of his memory, always here, always now.
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