A Heart Ticks In Here

You find old poems in the attic in a box with the Remington Rand you wrote them on in the Sixties before computers were born. They were published then in little magazines like Bitterroot, the one put out by Menke Katz, who loved poetry by anyone from anywhere who gave everything to write it. What to do now with these poems still breathing on paper but scarred by erasures, smudges and yellowed by time. You could send them out to a website where they might appear until the site disappears for reasons that take over the editor's life. Or you could put them back in the box with the Remington Rand and use a Sharpie to write a note on the box that says "Don’t throw this box out. A heart ticks in here.” Donal Mahoney