Looking Around

Looking around I see

Objects

From my past

A piece of broken brick

Picked up off a dirt road I once lived on

By my child

Now

Twenty years ago

A wilted white flower lies

Bent over backwards across its top

Like a ballerina balanced

In the hands of her partner 

A fired clay turtle

Brought back from the Bahamas as a gift

From my neighbors

For watching their house

Years have drifted by and I’ve lost track of them

Three families have come and gone over there

And now the bank owns it

Cobwebs in the window and stringy grass in the driveway

Frogs have taken over the green-tinted water of the pool

But the clay turtle still stands guard on my mantle

My old jeweler’s saw hangs in the corner

The engagements I cut through with its jagged teeth

Sealed by god but cut by me

Sized for another couple’s hands

Another couple’s hopes of making it longer than six months

A twenty-five cent figurine of a bear

Stands with a blank expression 

My baby shoes sit beside it

Given to me by my mother

They were once a keepsake for her

But now she’s given them to me

She’s given a lot of things away these last few years

Experts would say she’s in the last quarter of her life

I think after seven kids

She has too many damn knickknacks to dust and keep up with

One day

I might feel the same

But for now

I’ll keep looking around

This poem is from my book : Petals Falling