Yesterday I laid everything out on the carpet Books, kitchen things, With purpose or none Arranged sideways in a grid On the floor there, Out of context and considered it the whole picture, then everything individually Humming along at the deadest pace One object, then another, and then the And I what they meant there If meant anything still
notes, supplies, A book you in the desert, Wildflowers'. Pictures vacations, parties, Kitschy gifts we from rest stops On that trip out West Objects, Everything And memory
All of it laid out In the room The living The hallway, and the basement, and the From that room we the office But never In the laid out there on the floor On the carpet, out of
And I sat for hours
I moved everything from the floor To the table in the room Placed each carefully without reason Or at least without one I understood or describe There, on the table, and when I was done I stepped back I what I had made Keepsakes, pictures, objects all collected there
A
And I of ones on highways or set by gravestones All the you see there but don't understand But still bring a remembered thing vividly Invoke someone's reality when there In place in that way out of context And I I had to take it down Before anybody saw Tomorrow I plan to put all somewhere Those In of the road Attic All these things that push and me through history To places I once was, places I might gone, Places I ended up
Ticket stubs from one or another A personalized mug neither your name nor mine Phone cards and old A page from an old calendar I once At a thrift and insisted on hanging That of the moon print Old boots of
Put them in
And I sat for hours In the living first in the dining room Moving things Picking things up and seeing they took me To what in history moment on our timeline Where we were, I was, where I thought we'd end up In this or on the highway Driving somewhere near In the desert or else
And I put in boxes