Yesterday's Yesterday

Yesterday’s yesterday, I found a box
buried in the park
under a rose bush.

It was old, or
seemed so at least,
with a dancing elephant carved
into the soft light wood
blackened with dirt.

I was digging for buried treasure.
Seems I do that a lot these days,
search for things I know
I won’t find.

But maybe I did find it,
somehow,
buried treasure at the heart
of an enchanted forest
where young couples walked
hand in hand
a midst the screaming children
and lonely walkers.

That thrice-damned box.

It’s sitting on my bedside table now.
I don’t know what to do with it.
If I open it, who knows
what I might find?

Closed, it could be anything.
A secret journal.
A dead man’s skull.
A million dollars,
my ticket out of here.

But even I know
elephants can’t really dance
and they always did say
I was a coward.