Duluk's speaker sits down to examine a memory and finds it staring back, as if it has aged along with the one remembering. What comes up is warm and sensory: hay lofts, summer smells, a hike, a ride, a mother's kiss, a river's gurgle, and children laughing. But the title, "To a Spurious Memory," tells us the speaker doubts it is real.
That doubt is the heart of the poem. The speaker admits there is no firm way to check this distant happiness against what actually happened, much as you can't compare one person's sense of color or taste with another's. The speaker concedes that the memory may be "adorned," shaped by the way we like to see ourselves.
The mood is tender but wistful, tinged with honest suspicion. Rather than throwing the memory away, the speaker keeps it in a private place, one that only they can touch and taste. The poem suggests that even a possibly false memory can still be worth cherishing.