Packing up
The desk is easier to take apart
than to assemble;
it needs only a screwdriver.
I vacuum sand from around the doorway,
pictures come down, and notes
I’ve stuck inside the cupboard doors,
of concerts, high tides, and library hours.
The garbage bag is filling up
with worn-out clothes, half-empty jars,
read and unread books, snapshots,
her letters. I look around and think,
taking things apart is faster but much harder
than putting things together.
David Pratt’s poetry and short stories have been published in over 100 literary journals in the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia, including Avalon Literary Review, California Quarterly, Chaffin Journal, Comstock Review, Indiana Review, Prairie Journal, Rattle, The Formalist, and The Road not Taken. A volume of poetry, Apprehensions of van Gogh, was published by Hidden Brook Press in 2015.