that stuff that gets passed down
that no one wants anyhow
housed in those boxes
were half scribbled love
letters, the fine china cups
from Grandmother Jean
with chips in Virginia’s ridge
mountains, Lena’s acceptance
speech, the silver plate baby
shoes that mother passed
on from her mother..etc..an
old school monopoly board,
sixteen scrubbed silver dollars
and endless embroidered
purple rose parasols, plus Uncle
Nate’s war stamps collection
the memoirs you fear to throw
out..the stuff that’s passed
third cousin hands and fourth
generation aunts that you never
met anyhow..all kinds of trinkets
and wrinkled up memories that
no one had wall space for, or felt
any urge to put in a curio that
they’d have to go out and purchase.
About the Author: Emalisa Rose is a poet, macrame artist and animal rescue volunteer. She lives by a beach town, which provides much of the inspiration for her art. Her current passion is birding, which looks forward to weaving into her work.
Image Credit: Carol M. Highsmith “The porch that confirms the premesis’s name, Old Stuff Antiques, in Nashville, a small south-central Indiana city with a growing reputation as an art and collectibles center” (2016) The Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 