Pew Science

I took the box from the neighbor's trunk

and felt the paper settle like lead.

It’s a specific gravity, a heavy kind of junk

full of all the things my mother said.

The gold leaf is gone from the edges now,

rubbed into a gray and greasy smear.

It’s funny how the wrists eventually bow

under the pressure of a hundred-year fear.

I carried the stack through the freezing rain

and felt the spine give a cracking sound.

A little more weight, a little more strain,

before we put the whole thing in the ground.