I feel the rain falling all around me as I gaze into the box.
All of the letters you wrote when we were in love;
all the trinkets you gave so freely at one time.
I collected and kept them all.
Now they’re in the box.
You look so confused, like you don’t understand
how we could part like this.
But we were wrong together, and this
parting is only the realization of
how far apart we’ve really been all this time.
Do you also have a box full of memories?
Oh, how can a wooden box hold a lifetime?
A life?
But there it is, for all to see.
Our love is a vacuum, sealed, to be opened in another lifetime.
Why do you weep?
Can’t you see that all of this is for the best; that new
will come from old?
We will be together forever-in that box;
all of your I-Love_yous will be there for eternity to witness.
And you have your box, too.
All of my wishes for your happiness-
all of my kisses printed on paper with lipstick.
I place my hand on your shoulder,
but you do not feel it. You can’t.
You have discovered that you can no longer see me–remember
what I look like, feel like.
Someday they will bury your box near mine,
and we will reminisce together.
–1990
chimerawrites 