While cleaning out the house after she left, an intense gestalt flashbulb went off. |
Styrofoam Static Note: My wife and I split up. We put our house on the market; it sold in two days. The closing took three months, so the buyers and their two little girls moved in before we finished moving our stuff out. That's when I go down the cellar. Packing and cleaning the sold basement: closing Inevitable that it would to fall to me My sons were studying for their finals My daughter teaching…they’re all free The wife had taken the powder Two suitcases, gone, in a glare So I get the dust, mold, and garbage I shouldn’t ‘a been looking for fair. So I box all the books and the papers E.B. White, Hatchet, and Doctor Seuss Canning jars, albums, and trinkets Of twenty six years in a whoosh Twenty-six bags of garbage, Tied neatly in rows at the curb Twenty-six cartons of cardboard Broken boxes—all memories disturbed Our first VCR long forgot, broken Silver trays, bowls, never used Always been life’s jokes, tokens Now found, now paused, so confused. Here’s her box of college course papers, Spores sprouting discontent Learned to counsel, to heal all others, But Gasp! at where her own life's went. Legos, Care Bears, and Tinkers Mutant Turtles, Jurassic Park, Remember picking up all those stinkers Hey cool! Here’s the head of that shark! Buyers’ kids above ground, giggling Remember when ours were so young? But she’s not here for an answer Asking the question leaves me hard stung. Swiping away at the cobwebs To confront the last puzzle piece I’d tossed all the Styrofoam packing The last corner of this damnable job And that’s the rub with these pieces Protectors once—now simply cobs Abstract unique plastic snowflakes The goods they had cradled now gone. But disposal of these is as costly As see-meant blocks—fill as much space Break ‘em down! Pack ‘em in! Then compress ‘em, And the bill’s then much lesser to face. So snap crackle pop go the foam blocks Smaller but still all unique Tiny white beads, charged and floating Sticking—memories—to me |