Writing 201: Drawer

“What’s in your drawer? Let’s praise it (to its face) with odes and apostrophes. Hello, Day 8!”

The poetry prompt for day eight of Writing 201 is “drawers.”
The form is “ode.”
The device is “apostrophe.”

 

Closets and Drawers

Oh, closets and drawers,

many years you’ve accommodated
me

s  p  a  t  o  u  s  l  y  ,

but for more than a decade

I’ve taxed you to your limits.

Spilling your contents into the floor below

and filling up under the eaves of our home.

Through

hospitalization,
home renovation,
mold remediation,
illness,
a business upheaval,
and more …

Through death,

of this one,
then that one,
then another,

over six family members exiting, at a near yearly rate,

and add to that a few friends gone.

Mementoes,
documents,
papers,
accumulation,

life’s left-behinds to process and file.

You hid away what I couldn’t bear,

and enveloped what I needed to store.

And when somewhere in mid-life,

life went awry

with burdens beyond my capability or control,

you absorbed and hid the

overflow,
inability,
the chaos,
confusion
and pain.

And when trying to give what I didn’t have,

indispensable to others,

lost to myself,

closets and drawers, you filled to the brim,

tucking anguish and turmoil in to dark corners,

unaware you can’t hold and absorb

every thing

for every body,

all     for   all ,

without

the bottom

 

dropping

 

 

out.

 

You can’t cram-pack in space already filled,

‘though guilt will say that you should.

And you’re not unkind or terribly deficient.

You can only hold so much, and no more.

 

Closets and drawers, now I pare down your contents

and you, forgiving, relieved, let go

hidden remnants,
memories,
trauma,
pain.

Making room for space in the heart,

clarity, and vision,

because,

really,

 

what do I want left

when I’m gone?

 

Words and pictures by Terry Boswell
Copyright © 2015 Terry Boswell