During the March Open Write over at Ethical ELA, host Rex Muston invited participants to craft “Junk Drawer Affirmations” because, writes Rex: The most urgent motivations to fix something or do something purposeful are tied to the things often gathered there. The eventual rummaging through the drawer lends to varied levels of reminiscence…Pick your favorite junk drawer and explore it with a search that settles on something that carries deeper meaning.
I could have chosen one of several drawers, truth be told. But this one called to me. I’d already gone to rummage in it recently, and…well, it takes writing a poem to get to deeper meanings.
Cluttered Recollection
I forgot
what brought me
to the old rolltop desk
and what I was looking for
in this drawer
it isn’t the box
of sheet protectors
left behind by my youngest
marking his time
in high school band
not the psychedelic folders
I bought to hold
copies of songs for
kids at church to practice
the neon-swirl flower-covers
peeking out from under
the folded map of
the British Isles
this juxtaposition
conjuring a sense
of the 1960s
and The Beatles…
can’t buy me love, oh
no no no no…
not the bag
of unsharpened pencils
I won at a staff PD session
(why haven’t I used them?)
or the phone chargers,
wires twisting and coiling
over and around
five clear marbles
I hid here last year
to keep them away
from my toddler granddaughter
or the tag she tore off
my Princess Diana
Beanie Baby bear
(ripped away,
just like
the Princess)
or the flat little Ziploc
lying so unobtrusively
in the midst of it all
like an untold secret
carried within
—don’t know why I saved it,
this tiny snakeskin
pale as sand
fragile as a minute,
an exhaled breath
I found it
in the garage last spring
just a remnant
of a shy earth snake
that was once here
then gone
leaving only this papery bit
of itself behind
I remember putting it
in this baggie
I think I meant
to show it
to the granddaughters
but I forgot
just like I forgot
what brought me
to this old rolltop desk
that I’d given to their dad
when he was still a boy.
*******
Composed for Day 29 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge with Two Writing Teachers
lit bits and pieces 
Your craft in this poem screams loudly. I read your poem a few times- loving your stanzas and voice! Saving the snake skin tells a lot about you and your curiosity about nature! Exploring a junk drawer is a wonderful way to learn about yourself and inspiration for a clever poem!
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Thank you so much and I really didn’t realize my connection to nature until I started writing consistently – that’s been one of the gifts. As is getting over fears…I wouldn’t have always marveled at a snakeskin (it IS very little, and earth snakes are harmless and shy). I so appreciate your words!
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I love finding specific ideas to write something inspired by the most random things, so thank you. Your poem is beautiful!
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Thank you so much, Ana, for your words – I love how an inspiration takes me somewhere I didn’t know I was going when I started writing.
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Wow, Fran. The crescendo of this poem captures the way junk drawers tend to take over the task on hand. They all share such important things about you, even with the few words you use. The marbles… the beanie bay tag… the unsharpened pencils…love it all.
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Thank you for these gracious words, Melanie.
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So thoughtful and beautiful! I too have a rolltop desk that belonged to my grandfather and is full of goodies that tell stories. Thanks for sharing!
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Wow, cluttered recollections unearthed the beautiful mess of life. I love how you started and ended with how you forgot what you were looking for to begin with, yet what you unexpectedly found was a hidden slice, a sneak into past intentions. Thank you for your poetry, Fran!
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Thank you, Cindy – when I started the poem I really didn’t expect it to be about forgetting, the passing of time, growing older…but there you have it. This is what writing does…making order of “the beautiful mess of life” – that is a gem of a phrase, Cindy! Thank you-
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Beautiful – the desk, the paper, the pencils, the folders, the map, the Princes Di beanie baby tag, the snakeskin. I love how you start at the desk and then take us back there. The object is so much part of the people’s lives. I can see it and therefore, remember it all.
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Thank you, Joanne!
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Such a great description of what you might find in a junk drawer, from the expected coils of phone chargers to the less anticipated snakeskin remnants. l love the way you wove the ‘I forgot’ line through it all and can so relate to that feeling of ‘why am I here and what was I actually looking for?’
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Thank you, Celia – I knew the “I forgot” would be universal, and I couldn’t help tying to the theme of time passing and growing older, the rolltop desk itself being a symbol, as I gave it to my son when he was young. I always appreciate your insights so much.
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Lovely poem and so relatable. I often find myself just reminiscing instead of cleaning out what I set out to. 😅
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