pruning

like my parent's home,

there will be citrus in the right crisper drawer until peach season.

it's not worth it not to...

it's too nice. and, it's too subtle to resist in that way.

There was 'nothing left' in your city home after my cousins came, so

I took the hangers and the coasters and the red bakelite trash cans.

and the tie rack and your scissors and all the screws for hanging paintings left in your wall.

I still think about your sewing kit. I left it because I thought you might need it, but you laughed.

I keep waiting to have that great conversation;

instead I am appointed in charge of your post mortem yard sale.

In a love expressed in objects,

you are ordering boxes of citrus fruit to be sent back to me,

your strange grandchild, who never comes to visit.