for strangers
who might want
these once
familiar things:
this gift you
opened
at a certain age
in December,
imagining a future
that will want to hold
which past?
An archeological project:
plastic horses,
yearbooks,
papers—
evidence
that it happened
at all,
something
material
in this open
gorge
awaiting
landfill
until enough
earth smooths the surface
where old trees hold anonymous
birds
that still recite
their memorized songs.
Cheryl Emerson
May,
2014
