The Importance of Things

Inspired by a Donald Hall poem

After I read a Donald Hall poem

I glanced around my room. My treasures - First edition Oscar Wilde,

Bent antique typewriter, volumes of journals and boxes of letters,

Soft from re-folding - my chapters.

Vinyl in sleeves - Holiday, Cash, Clash, Doors - spinning ambient.

But it is the slight seduction of haphazard trifles - a brass train coin bank,

The wooden toy chest built by my grandfather's hands,

A cream ceramic vase, and the molasses statue

From my first love - worthless, weighty silt

That will be found at a yard sale table or donation drop,

As did my grandparents' camping photos, anniversary plate collection,

Stacked piles of Time, frayed dog collars

And armfuls of old-spiced-flannel.