new poem with old things by Joanne Giannino

 

in the antique shop

there are the usual items

 

a child’s wooden desk                                                

Joanne after poetry session
 on October 9, 2024,
Barton VT Public Library

with a bench seat

attached to the front

from a one room school house

part of a set, a row

no longer needed

broken up after the town

built a brick graded school

with metal chairs

still in use

 

and over here a set of

1960’s dishware: cups, saucers

cake and dinner plates

Joanne outside another shop,
Victoria, Prince Edward Island, 2022

salad and soup bowls, maybe

that unmistakable white interior

and exterior unforgettable colors

the names of no one knows

but you know them when you see them.

 

but here on this shelf

a postcard – from somewhere

in New York, a scene, wooded

lake, a winding road

& on the other side a note:

to my dear Franny, we had

such a good time in the country

looking forward to seeing you soon

come for tea! much love,

with a faded signature

the date: 8 April 1921

 

who were they

and how did the card

come to be here

in a box from an estate sale?

the buyer took the whole lot

maybe she found the card

inside a book – meant to

mark a page

a memory to keep

to look at while the reader

read on...

 

what meaning might it have

for someone here

this lazy sunny Saturday

in Brandon Vermont –

who might buy it now –

and what to do with it –

a frame for the image –

or the note –

a bit of nostalgia – a glimpse

at the past of someone

who lived, loved, and is

now gone –

 

they say

we live on

in the memories

of those whose lives

we touch

maybe also in those

who never knew us personally

but only through a card

they now hold

in their hand.

 

– JMG, 9 ottobre 2024