Time Capsule by Richard Wiseman
Topic: Boxes
Three layers of tape,
All different hues,
Some drier than others,
Three different labels,
To help the movers,
Find the rooms to put it in;
Two in black pen,
One in red;
‘Videos’
‘Phoebe Books’
‘Odds’.
The label ‘videos’
Makes me chuckle,
Technology
Out of date so soon.
It was you and me then,
Our first house,
Has it been so long?
I remember the silver tape,
The second layer,
Which isn’t as well stuck down;
I recall the ‘Bear In The Blue House’ ‘talking’ book,
Which accidentally ‘miaowed’,
When I moved the taped up box.
Jasper and Phoebe,
Fussing in the room,
Playing with toys’
I wanted to pack,
And Phoebe wanting,
Me to open the box,
As she thought there was a cat in there.
So I did
And so sweetly,
Fluffy haired,
She made me take the books out,
To look right to the bottom.
The tape didn’t stick so well,
The second time.
Finally in red,
‘Odds’ it says,
The move that brought us here.
Odds alright,
Stacked against us,
That’s for sure.
Looking for the old bunk bed bolts,
Up in the attic,
Today,
At your request;
I’m looking for something we lost,
Some time ago,
And now need.
I was looking,
And realized,
That though we’ve been here two years,
We still haven’t opened the last box.
Among the ‘Odds’ I find,
The bunk bed bolts,
Some forgotten toys,
And some last minute packing,
All of it of no use to anyone,
Now.
Except the bolts,
Of course dear.
We’ve had this box since we met,
It’s cardboard,
Taped together,
But for all it’s tired looking shabbiness,
It could easily be,
A history of us.
If that is,
We do our thinking,
Looking outside,
Of the box.
The Write On Project 
That sounds like me with the bolts…thinking that I will remember and then never finding it until it’s too late.
This is a touching, nice time capsule. I liked the part about the videos too – isn’t that the truth? Soon enough ipods will be old school.
Good luck against those “odds.” That’s a funny word in and of itself. I think I would have put “Misc.” – but that would be a whole different kind of poem!
Thanks for the comment. I suppose ‘odds’ is an English expression – short for ‘oddments’ God’s been good to us since the move and shifted the ‘odds’ in our favour just enough.
Beautiful and touching. Most of us have reused boxes left from the last move waiting to be unpacked. I have a few filled with things I can’t give away but can’t fit in my tiny home. They are stored in my garage. When I pass by the ones with my ex-husbands handwriting I am so sad. I keep telling myself I need to get rid of the boxes and repack the items inside but they are memories I can’t seem to throw away.
Definitely time capsules. We can throw away loads of stuff except memories, I suppose. Thanks for the ‘beautiful and touching’. That’s what I was aiming for, but it’s always hard to know if I’ve achieved my aim as a writer until someone reads it and says something. Thanks.
Lovely and very relatable. It reminds me of junk drawers, too. I probably have one too many of those in my house, but then I find something I need every so often.
“The label ‘videos’
Makes me chuckle,
Technology
Out of date so soon.”
That made me chuckle too . . . I’ve be carting around the same case full of cassette tapes for 16 years. Definitely out of date, but I can’t seem to get rid of them!
I have my “Odds” as well, though I label mine “Stuff” . . . I have way too many labeled “Stuff”!
I love this bit:
“We’ve had this box since we met,
It’s cardboard,
Taped together,
But for all it’s tired looking shabbiness,
It could easily be,
A history of us.”
There’s an entire story in those few lines . . .