All the Things Found & Forgotten

June 26: Temporal Inventory Records - Catalog secondhand objects with their attached timeline fragments. Include detailed provenance for each item’s emotional history. Use both retail and historical terminology. Consider how objects carry multiple stories simultaneously. End with finding an object that connects past and future. - Daily Poetry Writing Prompts 2025

The forest green sweater holds up better than your last relationship

Criss-crossed stitches that keep the past exactly there

You know it's not worth comparing, yet simultaneously you wonder how you allowed yourself to end up in sticky situations like that.

You consider all the hoodies that have ended up in your closet unknowingly

Like the ugliest yet comfiest, which accompanied you out for late night tokes

Or the one that person that greened out at that party left behind and never came back for

Must have been the greening-out, or the fact that the hoodie had a mysterious stain that never faded.

There's a golden box clock found at a garage sale for $5 back when you were a kid

You loved the little back door it had and would stash coffee beans and quarters in it for the scents

At night, you'd secretly open it and inhale

You've never told anyone that.

You have too many Tupperware lids with no partners

They jam the cupboard door incessantly and always end up in the wrong place or sliding out in one big avalanche on the floor

Wondering why you still keep them is irrelevant and unhelpful

You shove them back inside like skeletons in a closet, perhaps just shame and not being organized enough for someone's mother.

You find pastel crayons in a Ziploc bag and can't recall why or when

Pastels were never an attractive medium consider the texture and greasiness that came with them

You could never get the color to stick on the paper like you wanted

Staining shirt cuffs and elbows, you preferred just being messy intentionally than not.

There are snacks that you've never bought or tasted slipping out of bags and crevices

You leave them for your wife who gets hangry and nauseous in the afternoons because she forgets to eat sometimes

It's up to her if they're worth it or not

Some things are better left to others to figure out.

Your favorite is when the dog finds a ball that is definitely not his,

Or how the cat turns twist-ties and milk caps more intriguing than any toy you've ever bought

How they second-hand gift their beds to each other

The cat stretched out, the dog curled in, barely fitting

Perhaps it's the scents of all these objects, carrying a memory of someone known or not.

Like the rings you've found on floors of strange places, memories of joy and connection that you carry forward for those who lost them.

You think about what you've found and gained, what's been forgotten or lost will hopefully make it into someone else's story

Maybe they wonder as much too.

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Yeah, I know, I'm late. Dropped the ball on myself. Bumped my toe. But no, actually it's just been a crazy busy two days. Self-compassion is valid af. Hope you'll forgive me!

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I will be writing each poem on the correlating day but posting it on the following one. Feel free to take part or cheer me on. Consistency in writing isn't quite my strong suit, but I am here for your pennies and thoughts!

You can read more about these shenanigans below.