Notes About The Poem
REfers to my move a couple of years ago from the East Coast to the Midwest.
It's a Lifetime Away
It’s only fifteen hundred miles
From Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts,
To Omaha, Nebraska,
But it’s a lifetime away.
All those good years and bad years,
The old furniture and the new,
The thumbed wedding album,
The baby books, class pictures,
Weddings and more babies.
What to save and what must go.
Save the pictures of friends
And neighborhood parties,
Of church suppers and
Community picnics and
Potluck lunches on the beach,
To savor again in the new life.
Dole out to the family the
Initialed silver spoons and
The silver tea service and
Grandma’s wedding dress.
Framed pictures of aunts and
Uncles long gone from this earth.
Great Aunt Adelaide’s’ hope chest
With quilts she made a century ago.
Keep the mask made by the Maoris,
The flowered pottery plate
Bought in a tiny blue and white
Shop in Santorini, and the albums
Of trips filled with adventures
In far-flung destinations.
Leave souvenirs, leave china
And champagne glasses and
The broken set of everyday dishes.
Take Grandma’s gold-rimmed
Limoges plates to use every day.
Get rid of kitchen pots and pans,
Food savers and utensils,
Cooking magazines and books.
But keep the seasoned iron skillet,
The baking sheets and pottery bowls,
The cookie cutters and the years
Of treasured recipes in the yellow box.
Out with worn sheets and towels,
The whole junk drawer in the kitchen,
Big tablecloths, and clothes and shoes
Too big or too small or way too old.
Why all these tiny labels, rubber bands,
Covers without lids, lids to nothing,
Old glasses, broken belts, bits
And pieces of things long lost?
Sixty-seven years of life well-lived
To condense into a brand-new
Two-bedroom apartment with
Walk-in closets and a tiny kitchen.
No meals to get, no cleaning to do,
But there will be new friends to make
And new activities to enjoy, so
We move on, deciding what to
Take and what is too precious
To us to leave behind
Because home is always with us,
Wherever we wind up living,
No matter what things we have
Or how far it is from here to there.
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