Unpacking the Boxes

by Paula Hayden

I have put off unpacking the boxes

I know every single item in them

took my time wrapping the crystal

pondered over each souvenir

kept all the pictures of days happy

and not so happy

and have decided that I don’t need any of it

It is taking up space

anchoring me somehow in a place I am not

that was my life but

my life is not boxes or anything in them

I am living—free, happy

and boxless