The Box

A Poem

I opened the box in front of me and discovered A bundle of memories wrapped in a ribbon Stored away long ago to be preserved I didn’t know her to be overly sentimental But here they are The letters that were written Some never to be seen by the named recipient Some so raw that the words hurt even now

I let the ribbon fall away from the paper My fingers tracing the familiar script Her handwriting taught to her by her mother And reinforced by teachers Back when handwriting and cursive were still important teachings Before technology took over Back when letter writing was common practice And the only way people found out the real stories About what their family and friends were experiencing in far off lands Or even just a short distance away

Because sometimes writing the words would be easier Than saying them out loud There is emotion in a letter That you might never see in a Twitter tweet or Facebook post Because you can write it freely And then never mail it But the words have been sent into the universe Through the very nature of holding a pen and letting the words flow

I read through the pages in my hand, feeling her emotions As the words are pulled from the past Remembering those times she has written about Feeling her pain Remembering her joy I read every one

She was so young when some of them are written So naive Some are written to her husband, her parents and her children Some to herself I read every one

Then I fold them neatly and bundle them up with the pretty ribbon And place them back into the box Carefully labelling it MOM’S LETTERS

Because someday when I am gone my children will want to know Who she was What she feared What she felt And what she aspired to become

It’s all there Written on lined paper in forgotten cursive script Wrapped in a pretty ribbon Waiting for them to discover

Their mother’s younger self

© 2020 Pamela Simmonds. All rights reserved.

Originally published in Empowered Hearts, 2017

Pamela Simmonds writes from a quintastic perspective about her life experiences as a woman over 50 on her website www.aquintasticperspective.ca. She divides her writing time between blogging, developing fictional stories, and writing a collection of memoir stories describing her colorful and often challenging life.