Sediment

What to leave

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