The distillation
of all the different bits of
paper, photos and odd items
that had been so important to a life,
dwindle down to an afternoon
punctuated with questions,
memories, tears, laughter
and cardboard boxes.
Collections from a lifetime
are shuffled from box to box,
from life to life along
with considerations of future generations
and distant ancestors.
Time shrinks the collected treasures
of each of us down from households,
to a roomful,
to a shelf or two,
to just a couple of cardboard boxes,
as the valued knick-knacks-
the flotsam and jetsam cast off as the fragments-
of the most important and cherished memories
of a lifetime
get passed around the room,
get considered,
(“Wouldn’t so an so like this?”)
get disputed,
get decided on
and find their way into
someone else’s household,
someday only a room
and then a shelf or two and then
ultimately just
a couple of cardboard boxes.
8/2/98