These are the Papers of Our Lives

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why don't you open an archive?

                fill it with artifacts?

                               full of the life you've shared?

honey—
what if
we gathered
(yes, gathered.)
all the paper of your life—

        tucktucktucked  
        into a box,  
        neat.  
        complete?  

EVERY PAGE HAS A PLACE.

house deed (most expensive paper)
marriage certificate (which cost $17 at the time)
diplomas (second most expensive)
letters sent. and letters kept.
grade school notes // folded extravagantly
a journal that didn’t
lock.
(but you pretended it did)

         little scraps:  
         gum wrappers  
         prescriptions  
         a drawing of a fish  
         on the back of an envelope
         a weekend to-do list
         empty sugar packets
         receipts: grocery, bank, carwash
         sticky notes stuck to the fridge
         a dentist appointment reminder

do they count—
as much as
the grand ones?
(define grand)

Don’t the scraps count

as much as the milestones?

sheer quantity evidence YES!

yes, like the "I do" of a wedding

no take backsies.

    how big is the box  
    once it’s filled?  

    how heavy?  
    how loud?

does it smell like

memories?

or

landfills?

how much of this life is just trash? maybe, none of it. these grocery receipts fueled your body. this post-it note reminded you of a birthday. this wrapper delivered gum to the mouth of your beloved—is it not a paper kiss? can't you smell the mint the same as it was on their breath on your wedding day? this prescription kept your beloved alive a little longer. so they could draw a fish on an envelope with the same hand that held yours for comfort. a sugar packet which you dumped in the hospital waiting room coffee—not knowing if they'd come home. the dentist appointment you have to cancel because the patient is dead. is not this paper you and you this paper? 

            your muscles // cellulose
                    heart pumping pulp
                           lungs manila sheets
                                   fingers papyrus scrolls
                                           another day another ream

you are this paper and this paper is you.

look at this the paper of our lives.

    is this  
    is this  
    the life  
    you  
    meant  to  

     really meant

          to

    make?

looking at this box, i'd say it is.

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