Within the wooden boxes - Poem by Raymond A. Foss

Off in the basement
beyond the cellar stairway
in the mist of the dust
the harbingers of time

Within the wooden boxes
kept in the corner
becoming one with the floor
the dirt wrapped around them

Ancient plates packed away
patterns of the past
the china of their parents
and those before them

In the wooden boxes
history of the families
the blossoms and the ribbon
under the dust the dirt

Kept for some future
stored in their basement
I wonder what has become of them
some in my china cabinet

February 7, 2011
the good china
in my grandparent’s basement
forty years or more ago
&
----
On the Earthen Ground

Down into their basement one day
treasures there abound
a collection of life kept safe
on the bare earthen ground

China of family long gone from this earth
beautiful in boxes packed
some of this now part of my home
a piece of them carried on

So many things,
the stuff of our lives
handed down from age to age
kept because of the memory
the connection with them
but things alone nonetheless

February 2, 2010

Copyright by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.