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Keverlee Burchett: Goodwill Inventory

November 17, 2015 by PBQ

This time when you come you’re not

a thing lost, not broken or recently fixed—

 

you don’t break or fix me.

Now you’re harmless.

 

Now, you’re a glove-boxed

ice scraper in south Georgia,

 

a post hole digger,

birdseed scattered

 

to a city of squirrels. Now,

when you appear out of nowhere

 

on the ginkgo-lined street

of my memory, it’s autumn

 

and bright yellow, and you

are a used stereo (Works!),

 

a duck-adorned paper towel holder

and good-as-new crock pot.

 

You are hope and regret—

all good intentions and someone’s

 

newest treasure, no thing

to give a thought to,

 

oiled tool in some

handy person’s dark shed,

 

and yet here you are, come

from the ethers to tell me

 

there is some other thing

for emptying and for filling

 

to settle the shape of my hand

and what it might hold,

 

demitasse chipped and matchless,

painted finely in delft blue.

Filed Under: Contributors 92, Issue 92, Poetry, Poetry 92 Tagged With: Contributors 92, Keverlee Burchett, Poetry, Poetry 92

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