purging

the trash truck
is fun to watch as it gobbles
up
the years
of unwanted things.
bad prints of monet and van
gogh.
shoes with worn
soles.
there goes the lamp
my mother gave me when I was
twenty years old.
that pot
that burned on the stove.
a box of old photos
of people I never knew then,
and still don't know.
how easily the big
doors open
and moan,
then crunch down with its
metal mouth
upon my history, for better
or worse,
making it gone.