After Us
       

One day someone will fold our blankets
and send them to the cleaners
to scrub the last grain of salt from them,
will open our letters and sort them out by date
instead of by how often they've been read.

One day someone will rearrange the room's furniture
like chessmen at the start of a new game,
will open the old shoe box
where we hoard pajama-buttons,
not-quite-dead batteries and hunger.

One day the ache will return to our backs
from the weight of hotel room keys
and the receptionist's suspicion
as he hands over the TV remote control.

Others' pity will set out after us
like the moon after some wandering child.

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Copyright © 2011 Peggy and Graham W. Reid, Magdalena Horvat and Adam Reed All rights reserved
from Remnants of Another Age
Pleiades Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission