A study in the latent sadness of semicolons.
Miles of stifled memories later
there are boxes, suitcases, and bags
of leavings
of places and people in the past tense;
raw and remembering, leaving seems
like most of what I am lately
cross-legged on the linoleum thumb-raking
leavings; clippings from the Tribune
scrapbook flappings in finger-inking black
and white, gone yellow, gone gray.
I wonder at time, and how it stains your teeth;
I use the most painful of the paper--
your handwriting; your picture, my caption
to wrap seashells and semiprecious
stones and blown glass,
safekeep the fragile with the broken.
I wonder if I will ever feel safe around
delicate things, precious things
again; I am so finished with sweeping
the leavings of
my clumsy mistakes with
a dustbin stuffed with regrets.