Pack my life in a suitcase,
like one I had as a child,
with brown cardboard corners
rubbed grey and tin handle rattling
as it lollops side to side
between silver flip-clips
which open to display
a retro paper lining...
In first, goes a layer of war-torn sounds
to cower in corners.
Cover them with school uniforms
and scatter primrose memories
of picnics in the woods.
Layer paintings from college
with tears from teen dramas, until
confetti and a wedding veil shroud them
in mists of time, and baby powder scent
sends kisses and cuddles whirling
in ever growing spirals towards adulthood.
Tissue paper days of work and ageing,
of living, of loving, of life itself,
sandwich together as I press down
the lid to preserve my memories.
This is a somewhat off-piste offering for
P&SU #96 Friday Writing's subject of 'Home', with apologies to anyone who happened to read it before - nearly ten years ago - under the title 'Suitcase' on my Alias Jinksy blog. :-)
Love it. Love how you packed your memories in a suitcase. Sad to hear about the war-torn sounds. I also love how you press down the lid to preserve the memory Great poem
ReplyDeleteThe one sound I did enjoy, was a siren sounding the 'All Clear'! :-) Thank you for you kind words.
DeleteMemories of a life compressed into a little suitcase.....lovely poem !....Rall
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by to read, Blogpal ♥
DeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteThat one word verdict made me smile - thank you. :-)
DeleteTo pack life in a suitcase? Now that's downsizing! The war-torn sounds seem most interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm simply happy that I survived. The sound of bombs, droning planes or siren-alarms were hardly the best lullabies for my baby-sized ears. The up-and-down-wailing of a siren gives me goose-bumps to this day.
DeleteLife stuffed as memoirs in a cardboard box.
ReplyDeleteLittle girls like suitcases, our youngest granddaughter had one soon after the time she could walk, load it, and take it to her "airport" with her.
..
I guess her idea of aeroplanes is far removed from my memories as a small girl, for planes overhead in those days were dropping bombs! But they all missed me! :-)
Deletesandwich together as I press down
ReplyDeletethe lid to preserve my memories.
Great memories Jinsky, all nicely packed. Sounds of war included and hopefully, the last to be preserved, none to hear any more these days. Thanks for dropping in Ma'am!
Hank
Hmm...methinks the sounds of war are far from over, Hank - certainly people in Ukraine are living with, or dying from them, even now...
DeleteI love the analogy of keeping all the memories in a suitcase. From time to time we can slowly open it to relive the past, especially the happy ones. :)
ReplyDeleteI think all the 'memories in my suitcase' were the things that shaped me as the person I am in the 'here-and-now', and as such, can't ever be folded away, totally out of sight...they pop up in the most odd places, at times.
DeleteThanks for coming to read about them. :-)
beautiful memories - I love sorting through my boxes of children's drawings, photos, trinkets ...
ReplyDeleteThey do send us Back in Time - no Sci-Fi machine required. :-) ♥
Delete