FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
Jewels like fireflies fluttering
In the shadows of spruce and cedar
Are recollections of yesterday’s children.
Out of the corner of my eye
I see legs dangling from beds
Heads disappearing down stairwells.
I hear five siblings faintly
Slamming doors or crying or
Giggling in mossy clearings
They leave things for us to find:
A size-three sandal once
Red under a brushpile.
These children today live nowhere
Until a marble rolls
Out from under a radiator
Or my brush tangles in the dog’s
Bush like a comb in waist-
Long shining brown hair,
Or sitting on the couch with a book,
Making mouths at me,
My granddaughter crinkles her eyes.
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