Ten by Ten Treasures

Published in The Stony Thursday Book (edited by Peter Sirr) 2014

for Charles and Ray Eames

There are things that are sent among us
to test the faintest heart.

A broken spring in a box
is carried across an ocean.

From the shaft of attic light
where once a gun was held tenderly

(though since removed in case
the safety catch felt the fire within).

It might fail the object of its desire,
but the blue shard from a lamp

tells us more about the singularity
of a vie en rose.

Her handkerchief, neat envelope
the laundry smell of the dead departed

in the pocket of a son, who crosses the bridge
to find a space for regret.

Relics of other lives
in a cabinet of curiosities.

This letting go – this holding on
to objects of compassion.