Wrapped in Obituaries

Almost a month to the day Judith Denes passed away. She was Emily’s grandmother and meant a good deal to all of us. I have been helping packing up and move some of her possessions as they get the house ready to sell as soon as possible.

While I was packing up some dishes, one of those rare poetic moments happened.

I looked down and noticed I had gotten to the obituary section of an old newspaper and was using it to wrap dishes. This poem is a result if that moment.

Wrapped in Obituaries

I pack your mugs

into a “to be donated box”

cushioned with old newspapers

that were piled in your garage.

The faces of 

long departed strangers

peer up at me

from their black and white 

obituaries

wrapped around one of 

your many Intel mugs.

Selfishly,

inevitably,

I realize that

my possessions will

too, one day,

be strewn

to the trash

or strangers

full of

my untold stories.