These Things We Keep

These things we keep—in crates and sheds
and files and frames, and in our heads—
tell stories we don’t want to lose,
or carry riddles that refuse
to be resolved, or pull the threads

of fading quilts on unused beds.
We can’t keep moments; in their steads
we want some tokens, so we choose
these things. We keep

postcards and petals, skates and sleds,
one earring, and too many dreads
and griefs—so much that we can’t use.
But we can’t let go of these clues
to us: chipped teacups, scarves in shreds,
these things we keep.

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Jean L. Kreiling is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Home and Away; her work has been awarded the Able Muse Book Award, the Frost Farm Prize, the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Prize, the Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Prize, and three New England Poetry Club prizes, among other honors.  She lives on the coast of Massachusetts.