Assessing the damage 

(as one does)

The detritus of your life

A crazy land of

Dangling participles

A desk choking on Garamond

Splinters of your archaeological dig

Train tickets, theatre stubs

Phone numbers, addresses

The blue air mail letter from Leonard Woolf

The Empress tarot card

A Crematory receipt.

Go out in the gray dawn

Soothe the neglected vines 

Let the dry, cracked earth fill up

With your little bag of debris

Buried with your dread and hope

And all that drifts away

By Barbara Shields