Week 19: Wash Away

Letters left on the beach to wash away
a song sung into a cassette recorder, a box
of player piano rolls lost in an attic, Polaroids
tossed on a dashboard, edges curled by the sun

a stack of diaries in the basement, a manuscript
stored away in the back room of a museum
a mural painted over in white, ashes delicately chalked
onto the walls of an unexplored cave

a wish whispered to the stars
a postcard lost in the mail
a message left on an answering machine
and never heard

Author’s Notes:

A classic ‘list of things’ poem. This is the first week I’ve had trouble landing on a name for the poem. My practice has always been to pull text directly to use as a title (which I did end up doing here), but it really seems like ‘Washed Away’ would be a better title. I’m not sure, but Polaroid might be the first Brand that I’ve mentioned so far in this project.

I’ve been experimenting with something called enjambment recently, which is when a line ends uncompleted and continues on the next line. I like how it can add a bit of energy and flow to this type of poem that might otherwise seem really flat.

Favorite line(s):
a song sung into a cassette recorder, a box
of player piano rolls lost in an attic

A line that I removed, but still like:
An ancient echo, wandering its canyon like a ghost