Anew (by me)

Anew

When one more goes,
you may find yourself
to be the last one.
There are none that knew you then,
not even yourself,
sometime.

The Coleman lantern,
mantle burning brighter than any city moon,
its hissing filling out the dark spaces;
potatoes boiling on the wood stove,
roils of water and cinders crackling,
filling in the worried places;
cribbage or Scrabble in the dim,
chatter of simply the game,
and farther memories;

All, regardless of the era,
keeping alive what was truly needed -
what was truly good;
Food, family, warmth, shared times.

Paisley bush jacket?
No! Of course not. It was plaid (or
had it been just plain green or brown?);
laid away, with others, in the city basement
in the closet under the stairs
for many many years.

Strong, infused with grace, enduring,
and confidentially wise to its pricelessness;
until its fibers, weighted with waiting,
dissolved into the universe,
somehow;

She was a keepsafe
of memories, wanted and unwanted,
of ourselves and our others, and yet more;
Some one that may have known me then.

May I recall this strength and grace
to do the same, in hers and others' names,
someday.