I have a wooden cedar box
Filled with precious things
Most of no value to you
But joy to me it brings
A copper penny, 1961
The year I was given life
A withered old white rose
From the day I became a wife
Two certified legal documents
That tell me that I am free
A US birth certificate
And a final divorce decree
Golden locks, adorned with ribbon
Clipped from the head of my son
A bag filled with tiny teeth
Exchanged for a dollar one by one
A report card, five A’s and one B
My sons first year at school
A tattered silken blanket
Still covered with infant drool
A book of poems that I had written
While in my rebellious teens
Fifty plus love letters
From then, now and in-between
Old yellowed photographs
Of family long since gone
A dozen crayon pictures
That both my kids have drawn
Hospital anklets, pink and blue
That Danny and Sara wore
A stupid keep out sign
That I used to hang on my door
Each item within this box
Is a memory that I hold dear
I keep them for a distant time
When my memory won’t be so clear
So if you wish to see inside
To you I have one request
Do not call it just a box
‘Cause to me it’s a “TREASURE CHEST”
