Yesterday alone I everything out on the carpet Books, kitchen things, With specific or none Arranged them in a grid On the there, unmoored Out of context and then it First the whole picture, then everything Humming along at the deadest imaginable One object, then another, and then the And I what they meant there If meant anything still
notes, supplies, A you bought in the desert, Wildflowers'. Pictures vacations, parties, Kitschy gifts we bought rest stops On road trip out West Objects, itself And memory
All of it out there In the dining The room The hallway, and the basement, and the From room we called the office But never In the Everything laid out there on the On the carpet, out of
And I sat there for
Today I moved everything the floor To the table in the room each thing carefully without reason Or at least without one I or could describe There, on the table, together and I was done I stepped back I realized what I had Keepsakes, pictures, Ordinary objects all collected
A
And I thought of ones on or set by gravestones All the things you see there but understand But still bring a remembered thing vividly Invoke reality when there together In that place in way out of context And I knew I had to it down Before else saw I plan to put them all somewhere Those In Side of the Attic All things that push and pull me through history To places I once was, places I might gone, Places I up going
Ticket stubs from one thing or A personalized mug neither your name nor mine Phone and old phones A page from an old I bought once At a thrift store and insisted on That cycles of the print Old boots of
Put in boxes
And I sat for hours In the living room in the dining room Moving things Picking things up and seeing they took me To place in history What on our timeline Where we were, where I was, I thought we'd end up In this house or on the Driving somewhere Christmas In the desert or anywhere
And I put in boxes