so what is the importance

of this box of random stuff

what separates significance

from the flotsam and the fluff

the one thing they have in common

is the accident of how

I never sought to save them

but I can’t pitch them now

 

sometimes I open up these boxes

and let them take me back

I don’t clean them out or second guess

I leave it all intact

as I look across this cluttered house

from the mundane to the grave

I think about these memories

and wonder what to save

 

fragments of my life

it’s a wonder I survived

greater than the whole

breadcrumbs to the soul

 

 

© 2018 by Rob Siegel. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

09 – Irreducible

 

when I organize the office

or clean out my top drawer

the bills go in the folders

but there’s stuff that I can’t sort

here’s some cufflinks from my father

here’s a tape from my old band

here’s a fountain pen from high school

when I used to write longhand

 

here’s a birthday card from Lisa

here’s my old UMass ID

here’s a clipping from a magazine

that reviewed my CD

these things can’t be filed or classified

and can’t be thrown away

so I put them in a box

with other stuff that I must save

 

irreducible

fragments of a life

irreducible

it’s a wonder what survives

irreducible

these pieces I can see

irreducible

must mean something to me

 

here’s my old expired passport

with that picture taken when

I’d been awake for three days straight

that first week of exams

here’s an entertainment license

from 1998

says Nantucket street performer

yeah I did that for one day

 

oh look a map of Glasgow

I was young and stupid then

I’d hitchhiked up from Edenborough

to visit an old friend

a trucker saved me from a snowstorm

are ye daft lad? then he poured

us both hot tea from a thermos

and he drove me to her door

 

fragments of a life

it’s a wonder what survives

take one of them away

I’d be someone else today