Blue Moon

2012

A strange desire for
Sweet ice cream
Settles over the
Collection of things
Being readied for sale

How do you unshackle
The past and honor it too?

Long walks through German forests
Fail to be captured on wooden plates
Hummels are now obsolete
And books have been re-printed
In fancier type sans Latin quotes
But a painted rock still manages to
Hold down a few letters

You save what you can

Dated cut-crystal bowls
Early American furniture
Wings of an eagle clipped with age and
Asleep on the pavement floor
Nestled against your parent’s parents’ things
Confusing the narrative further

Separating people from stories
Is tough business
Like emptying vessels
Of precious cargo
When your need to preserve
Conflicts with your
Need to move on

You seek pleasure in questions and memory

Where are her shoes
With the green gemstones
Encrusted near the tips?
When did his blue Chevy station wagon disappear?
The hunting camouflage, burned
The yellowed wedding dress, thrown away
His tooled workbench
Painted cans of nails and fasteners
Labeled for easy use
Linger in the garage untouched
A makeshift memorial
To his ingenuity and craftsmanship
This, their sacred prayer place
Where co-navigators pause
To thank god for another safe return

Their whole story untethered

Another garage and
The silly memory of Bridgeman’s
Savoring Blue Moon Ice Cream
That sweet sugary substance the
Color of turquoise shirts and an
Aquamarine ring faint
Amid these relics
Aftermath of lives lived
You must sell

How do you let free
What remains of two lives?
You take the unearned
Profit, reluctantly
Knowing you can
Neither keep nor give
Before it melts

Written in 2012 | Published August 1, 2013