Three Boxes from the Dearly Departed

I am the holder of three boxes:
each a collection of years gone by −

one cerulean blue safety deposit-
style with draping handle, another:

pearl leather with gold catch hanging
cockeyed from the top lid

and one buckskin-covered box
with broken lock and missing key.

I leave them closed so as not to disturb
the order, lest I move something for

curiosity’s sake, all chaos would ensue
as surely someone will notice.

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a six-time Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net nominee. She is the recent winner of the RED OCHRE PRESS Chapbook Competition with her entry Before I Go to Sleep. She has authored six chapbooks and two e-chapbooks along with her latest full-length collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, newly released from March Street Press. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of online and print magazines including: The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Able Muse, Poets and Artists, Foliate Oak and many more. According to family lore she is a direct descendent of Robert Louis Stevenson. Visit her website: http://www.clgrellaspoetry.com.