Collecting Echoes

This is the time of year when I start to concede that maybe 

I have too much junk many collections... 

My largest collections are

rolling pins ...

...enamel-ware

 and poetry books

...and oh, what pleasure they have added to the ordinary!

Collectors walk that fine line between pack-rat and passion😏

some day

when I die

they

will pile a wagon high

and people will come

and sort throught the conglom

-eration

of these pieces of 

love

...and the auctioneer will call

what am I bid

the pictures of

the living they did

  hidden from eyes 

as they surmise

the size of the lot

and contemplate the price

and someone says

maybe 'I could use that' 

and another replies, 

'yeah, this might be nice'

...for the hands have been stilled 

that once thrilled

with the warmth of honest toil

as they filled

dishes with dinner

(fresh-from-the-garden-spoil)

Folded forever,
the fingers 

that lingered

between pages

as they highlighted a line 

here and there

The lips have laughed 

and kissed the last

tears of tots
and teddy-bears

when the milk was spilled

...here is the apron,

oft flour-dusty

as pies were rolled and filled

Now the rolling pins are passed on

like wooden batons

to the next generation

for stories not yet told

'what am I bid'

cries the auctioneer

'going once

going twice

sold!'

("throw in an extra rolling-pin"

he tells the bid-spotter

"We've got a lot of them to get rid of

...and just for the sake of love

a poem book or two

The things people collect!"

he said)

...and if I could I'd say

'yes, it's true,

it's true

Soundless echoes of 

home-sweet-love

that once upon my

little life

I knew'

Janet Martin

..