Susan Sweetland Garay’s most recent poem to appear here was Past Lives (February 2013).
Accumulation
By Susan Sweetland Garay
We both knew that
a half empty shelf
would not be at home here
so we go to work filling it.
Changing lives so dramatically
makes it hard to stay
in touch with the past.
I remember reaching up and out
of the chlorinated water
to pull a green bean from its vine.
It was delicious, as only freshly
picked things can be,
eaten amidst a backyard swim.
But now I have forgotten the taste.
When packing an
entire life into
a smallish car
there are things
that will be left behind.
There is not room
to bring much
that is nonessential.
Though when I arrived here
I found more to throw away.
I suppose we
must discard
to make room
for more collecting.
Accumulation is
difficult to avoid.
