When I succeed
In my Zen crusade
And I rid myself
Of all possessions
Perhaps all of the mementos
That used to represent moments
Take their memories with them
Leaving a clean slate in their wake
Being that I am the mean sum
Of all my life's experiences
I wonder
If my sum will be the less
10 becomes 9
My baby things
Images of me being adopted
My favorite rattle
Thrown away
Losing the square footage battle
My kindergarten photos and art
Go into the dumpster
To be compressed and buried
Compost for another generation
9 becomes 8
My first tie goes away
Followed by a ticket to a movie
Long faded, title unknown
From a theater
Long torn down
My first years at St.
Thomas
First book reports
Crayon drawings of birds and boats
Gone in the blink of an eye
Forgotten, fed to the goats
8 becomes 7
Middle school fades away
Mr. Dingman reading Huckleberry Finn to us
My lucky eraser
A special pencil
Running to the landfill
7 becomes 6
First years of football souvenirs
First time in detention
Papers, grades, and year books
Favorite novels and cassettes
Marking the joy and the tears
Ground up for filler
Bedding for hamsters
6 becomes 5
Easier to make room now
High school disappears
With all the awkwardness
A scrap of paper with my locker combo
Prom after party prizes
Senior t-shirts
Never in my sizes
I empty boxes at a feverish pace
I haven't felt this free in years
5 becomes 4
College notes and books
Degree certificates
First time at a real career job
Old patches with defunct logos
There was a Harley in there somewhere
Hundreds of Compact Disks
Antique books
Into the pile!
Into the pile!
Where will it end
This pile goes on for miles
4 becomes 3
A photo of my wife
Taken a minute after
The first time I met her
Not knowing how she'd change my life
Deed to our first house
An ultrasound printout
Showing twins
3 becomes 2
More patches
More toy airplanes and hats
Another ultrasound
One fetus this time
Baby books
First haircut locks tied with ribbon
First day of school pictures
2 becomes 1
Bankruptcy papers
Foreclosure papers
New home surveys
New school sign up sheets
New paystubs from a familiar name
Piles of poetry
All go up in flames
Relegated to one
No mementos
No reminders
No keepsakes
No things to remind me of who I am
If experiences make the man
And all reminders of them are gone
I will forget all that I am
Become a negative sum
It's a crazy fear
But honest and true
The one
Would naturally lapse into
A zero sum outcome
This is one of my very favourites.
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