Letters

You found it on a sidewalk in the city
Made of wood, swollen with rain
Straps of leather, a hinge of crumbling rust
It held tight her dreams, wonder, hope and trust
We stayed that day, sitting together under a leaden sky
And made up stories of the when, the how, the why
From the letters, love of old
Scrawled words of need and disappointments
Of fear and disagreements
And I thought of another city
One time in another life
On a different day, inside another chest
Other letters
Of hopelessness and emptiness
Of grief and loss
And wondered if ever someone read of my life
And wondered if I’d made it out of the darkness
If I’d made it into the light
We closed the chest
And for days and days
With us, we carried those lives