Yesterdays Papers
Katherine Highcove
Sleepless nights set her searching,
Opening disheveled drawers,
In deserted dark bedrooms, probing
The debris for clues to her past.
Her searching hand stirs remnants
Rejected from forty years of living,
In the same space that frames
A deserted stage for family scenes.
Loose change and empty perfume bottles,
Dusty shoes waiting in a disheveled closet,
A cracked tea cup and silken slips,
Leftovers from another life.
Junk jewelry flows to the floor,
Colored bits of glass and gold,
Bright clutter to her innocent gaze,
She paces on paths of pearls
Old letters and envelopes,
Face powder, postcards and portraits
Of young faces no longer familiar,
Smiling and staring at her blank gaze.
She shuffles slowly to her bed,
A wrinkled island of safety
In her chaotic world,
Memories dry with age.
Dawn disturbs her waking dreams,
Heavy sleep then blankets the light.
Yesterdays papers lie scattered on the floor
Like pages of memory fallen from her mind
When her windows darken,
Figures blur on a blaring box.
Insistent voices call her name,
Its time to search for clues again.
Katherine is another talented - and versatile - member of the SFV Branch of California Writers Club, of which I am a member. In addition to poetry, she writes nonfiction and plays. Hesitant to share her poems with us at first, I know she'll dazzled us with the variety of her pieces. I look forward to sharing more of her poems in future issues.
