After Thoughts

By EKPoet

Now that you have left and the sounds and sights of you are gone,
I walk through the emptiness of the house
Going through all of the things that you left behind;
The elegant furniture that you used to polish,
The marvelous paintings that you used to look at,
Your stylish silverware and beautifully glazed china,
The necklaces and earings that you kept in your jewelry box,
Your dusty instruments and empty flower vases,
Photograph albums full of our old photographs.

This is all that I have left.
Bureaus of empty drawers,
Hangers without clothes,
Paintings of sailboats we never sailed in,
Mountains that we never climbed,
Instruments that went unplayed.

I should learn to play that violin,
I should go sailing, climb those beautiful mountains,

But then I still need to pack up all of your things,
Somehow put them into cardboard boxes,
Pack them away into the shadows of the closets,
Where I can run my fingers over them and look at them
One at a time, whenever I like, alone in the dark,
Heavy and still with all of your memories.