Attempting Clean-up

A poem comparing old papers and digital ones

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Trying to de-clutter
I delve into boxes
full of memories
that defy discarding.

Letters, almost a lost art,
some from the man who won my heart.
Cards well-wishing,
drawings that are fishing
for compliments,
“Not bad!”

Diaries, all sizes, dusty.
An article forgotten,
waiting to be revived.
All are yellowing, musty.

A phonology paper
stirs memories and pride.
Yet recent treasures
have disappeared
or gone to digital heaven.

Years of diaries
for the new daughters and sons
wiped out by modern vermin,
“A virus”, as the never-failing
verdict seems to be.

Verses, stories, meditations
occupied less space
than those of years before
this product of the human race,
and yet those older ones
live on!

Forgive me
if my noble idealism
-or nostalgia?-
refuses to let me fill the dustbin.