As I said before,
I have to start giving things away,
start clearing out. A daughter
comes to help. We begin
in the coal cellar where I've stored
a few bottles of wine and
many items over the years.
A grandson comes too
and says, This is easy.
We just throw everything away.
But I retrieve the yogurt maker,
sturdy string to support the plants,
vases for the flowers,
a rug made by Pueblo Indians.

We laugh over what I've kept:
cans of paint that have dried,
tools never used,
empty boxes smelling of mildew,
a typewriter used 60 years ago
when I first began to write.
Books no longer read
also smelling of mildew,
rusty nails and unused clamps,
a sweeper that doesn't work,
many, many baskets, one
with a small hole used by Mother
to gather from the garden,
maybe even by Grandmother too --
and because of its history and shape
valued by her great-granddaughter
who had been throwing things away.

-- Dorothy Holley