You cleared out your things
Anonymous cardboard
Permanent reminders
Labeled black letters
Your last will
Washed dishes stacked in the rack
Drying shiny flowers
Dust motes float by the lamp
Sub-freezing frost clouds outside
My arrival blows condensation
Carpets rolled aside
Tied with twine
Tidy dry tongues
Daylight stumbles
As dark hues stick and slide
Bare walls, hardwood footsteps
You sweep the last of your memory
Kitchen cleaning
Pine oil, plastic buckets
Silence is a cracked vase
Placed in the bin
With book titles
Perfume bottles
Down feathers
Holed socks
Q-tips
Dust
The rusted gate speaks one last time
And freezes shut
Perfect outlines
Preserved in the empty album
