Page 16 - Contrast1991Spring

To Whom It May Concern:
I found your note today

As I sat beneath
dust and dittos
mounds of storybooks

stained glass windows of wax paper and Crayola
shavings I destroyed Mom's iron to make
I found it

Pressed between a stack of subtraction
and second-grade spelling paper
folded so no corners would meet
in number two pencil
I found your words:

Dear Angela,

I love you. Do you love me? Do you
want to eat lunch today? I like your hair.
I love you.
I found no signature

For the fourth time in my fourteen years -Angela Tremain

my family is packing itself into crates and U-Haul boxes
leaving chair-leg impressions on carpets that
never belonged to us

Mother says: Throwaway what you don't
need

Get rid of the stuff you don't
want anymore
No time to look through class pictures
No chance to discover the name you left
unsigned

Father pulls the box waiting at my side
The spelling papers and math packets

are going to the dump
I don't need them anymore
As the box is lifted away

I slip your note inside to let it stay
Where I found it

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