Among the Broken Ones

18. Museums

We visit museums
to stare at remnants
of long, half-forgotten pasts.
Bones, artifacts, treasures,
we plunder from the earth
for anything that once lustered
and was lost
gains value
when rediscovered.

This is how we exist today;
both artifacts
in each other's museums.

You---
a red scarf, greeting cards,
your coffee mug,
old books
and goodbyes.

I---
probably my long letters,
chocolate wrappers,
an old blue sweater
and promises breaking
you'll put in glass boxes
labeling it with the days
when we revolved around us.

Piece by piece,
my dear one
artifacts retell
of stories and lives
and all that I wish
is for you to see
this collection of you
labeled with your name,
hoping
to make you wonder.