Kitchen Shelf

Kitchen Shelf

The grey and gold ceramic jar
survived the trip from Cornwall
in a backpack you carried home.
The beaded giraffes we bought
in a market in Cape Town 
did not fare as well
after the long trip in the bottom
of an overloaded suitcase,
and the wooden rattle
with elegant curves
marked by the teeth
of two grandchildren, 
still catches the light
on its undulating grain.
A sweet tableau that tethers us 
to years long past, 
when we ventured far afield,
beyond the reach of caution, 
and the tightening constraints of time.