Viatecum--The Things We Take With Us

These are the things

we take with us.

My heart become

a small stone

tumbled and polished.

When I see the sand

of your kindness and

your sweet voice.

These are the things

we take with us,

worn without care

and careless and finally used

and left aside.

Only the simplest

bone handle, carved to fit

the final hand.

These are the things we take …

That handle might snatch us

back.

We’re given only

a slender thing

to carve a suitability.

These are the things we take

with us … 

and so I will give

a cloth full of grace,

full of breath,

the only durability I have inherited.

Everything else was extra, waste.

These are the things you take with you.

You only have

a sack full

of the tiny hearts

you rubbed,

their music,

the clack they make

as you walk.