Clearing out our basements

Who is that crying? 

What is the source of these wails?

Sifting through the junk in the basement

I find one clue

A doll, overused or abused at some point

Her head turned around backwards

Where did she come from?
Why is she crying?

I reflect on her presence

Her old and sad body

What happened to your head?

I wonder

Trapped in a cardboard box

For Lo, these many years

Not sure why we kept her

To mark the past full of

Youthful energy?

What a hard life she has had

Darkness, mixed in with other toys

Some softer than she

Remember the Gunds?

Cuddly bears and beanie babies

We wondered what to do with them

We could not let them go

Years ago, a neighbor asked

If we had any old Barbie dolls

No longer wanted

We gave her the dolls

Knowing her plan which was

To pull off their heads

I heard later that this little

Girl got raped in college

What about those early years

When we thought the whole world 

Was ours to enjoy?
What about those adolescent years

When we struggled and couldn’t understand

Why life was so confusing and awful?

What about our grown up years

When we strived to succeed and 

At times continued to suffer with

So much stress and distress?

Here come the later years

Ah, what a feeling to behold!

Seventy years and life is getting

Clearer and more peaceful

Relaxed and joyful

Blessing all the ways we got here

Regretting some of our decisions

But, rejoicing in several of our choices

We now live more consciously

More tenderly than before

More hopefully than previously

Winds taken out of sails?

No, rather, the breath of Spirit

Blows up new

Sacred sails that take us on 

Wild adventures and travels

Amazing Grace

To arrive 

At last

Clearing out our basements