---

The first alteration was almost invisible.

In a photograph from 1998, my father's wristwatch disappeared.

Weeks passed before anyone noticed. Then a wedding photograph lost a guest. A precise absence remained: a space in the arrangement, a disturbance in the light, as though reality had forgotten to finish composing itself.

The revisions accelerated.

A childhood photograph removed the swing set. Another erased the dog. Then the backyard. Then the house.

Eventually there was only me standing inside a field of undeveloped white.

I stopped opening albums.

The albums continued their work.

Each morning new omissions appeared. My cousin vanished from Christmas. My mother disappeared from vacations. Friends evaporated from graduations.

The process felt deliberate, editorial, as though an intelligence inside the photographs had decided the world contained too many unnecessary details.

One evening new images appeared on my phone.

Images I had never taken.

There I stood in unfamiliar rooms, at unfamiliar funerals, beside unfamiliar graves. 
Each image was dated years ahead. In every photograph I seemed older, thinner, less substantial.

Behind me the world grew sparse.

Buildings removed. Trees removed. Roads removed. Even the sky.

Yesterday I reached the final image.

Nothing remained except a chair in a white room. Someone occupied it. The face had been carefully erased.

This morning the chair disappeared.

Tonight I will look again.

If the archive is empty, I suspect it has finally finished remembering me.

---

David Anson Lee is physician, philosopher, and poet based in Houston, Texas, whose work explores memory, human connection, and the liminal spaces between perception and reality. He holds a background in medical science and philosophy, bringing a reflective and inquisitive lens to his writing. His poetry draws inspiration from both contemporary and classical literature, emphasizing vivid imagery and emotional depth. His poems are forthcoming in Mobius, Eunoia Review, and Unbroken Journal. David is currently developing a collection of original poems examining time, identity, and place.