Romancing the boxes, she packs,
piece by piece, wrapping
each memory, a bubble
of tissue and plastic cushioning them
against the bruising realities to come.
A life, reduced now to small things:
A photo of her mother and father
vacationing, remarkably child-free,
by a sun-gilded sea
The figurine, rendered in porcelain,
of a young girl in a hoop-skirted, lace-
ruffled ballgown the color of jonquils
A small, carved-jade box, just larger than
her palm, containing her entire collection
of jewelry, seldom worn, much-loved
The set of jewel-toned, cut-crystal
cordial glasses, from which she sipped
grape juice as a child
Now, building her wall, brick by brick,
she carefully stows and stacks, each layer
adding a new echo to these once-bustling
rooms, her mind quietly wandering, pacing
the years, back and forth, west to east,
and westward again, leading her
along a footworn pathway toward
the sun-gilded sea, and home.
(c) 2018, by Hannah Six
Image: MaxPixel
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