"Cleaning out the cusions"

Cleaning out the cushions

of an old gray tweed-upholstered chair

I drew handfuls of old small things,

none more striking than this trio:

a clear blue marble, a hydrogen atom from Sam's model chemistry set, and a dusty yellow jelly bean.

I promise I could find a metaphor

Or a concrete here-is-life story

I could talk about the small things

Or the wasted things

I could talk about color

Or love

Or armchairs.

I promise. 

I also promise

that I won't.

This poem is not symbolic.

-Citron