Missed Connections in Manhattan
Too Young For The Sun
The antique Chinese chest sits against a cluttered wall. It’s low to the ground and relatively small – looking more like a redwood ottoman than a keeper of ancient history; not just of its own; the craftsman responsible for its production, the original and subsequent owners, but as a repository for a thin sliver of my history.
Stacked atop the chest are three small wooden boxes filled with postcards from trips and travels and a globe from 1990. Cracked and battered, its lines and colors show how the earth was once organized and named. Some changes are obvious, others I remain ignorant to.
The letters held inside the chest begin in the year of the globe and end five years later. A curious time before the ubiquity of emails and computer generated print-outs, a time when it was unsurprising to receive an envelope enclosing joyfully (or not) selected words written on thoughtfully (or not) selected paper.
When the night came that the world changed, I became a quiet thief in a black dress desperately searching through closets and drawers, removing every memory, every piece of history. Compulsively collecting every item that connected you to me.
There was solace in discovering you were a keeper of memories too.
There was comfort to be found when I would sit close-by the chest and allow my fingers to glance over our papers like a tailor reverently holding fine fabric.
The globe of 1990 and its colorful images rest heavy on the Chinese chest. This choice of placement is intentional. There’s a powerful seduction in re-visiting, re-living, re-thinking the past when we had different names and boundaries.
Inside the Chinese chest, time stands still. Two halves forever preserved, forever reunited in a small sliver of time, while the globe continues to spin and change so much.
Her Two Cents
Today marks the start of year four for the Lovelorn Poets blog! So many things have changed in our world since November 14, 2010. Take a moment and think back: Where did you live? Who did you love? What were your hopes for the future? How did you define yourself? Looking back into the past can occasionally cause some pain (reading over my early posts can bring on a strong case of the cringes!) but it can also help us to remember the excitement of new beginnings and the fun of uncharted adventures. Keep those feelings close to your heart with your eyes trained on the horizon, for it is in that space that the future will be revealed.
