Clutter

"I've enough of useless clutter
Kept in boxes, long forgotten,
Filling space that needs no filling
In the corners of my world!"

So I set my hand to purging
Set aside some time for culling -
Loosing things that need no keeping
From the corners of my world.

Like books on bookshelves - never read
Or never to be read again.
Lib'ries are for keeping these things,
Not the corners of my world.

Or magazines I've kept for years
For articles I once enjoyed -
Do I really need to keep them
In the corners of my world?

And then there are the gifts from friends
I had forgotten that I had.
Do I keep them for the givers,
Tucked in corners of my world?

Things I barely want and don't need
Save for mem'ries I'd forgotten,
Things I wouldn't miss if lost from
Little corners of my world.

In my past I courted clutter
Saved things for the mem'ries in them
All my past seems held in items
Kept in corners of my world.

Now I'm dreaming of a future
Free from boxes filled with clutter -
Open space and room for breathing
In the corners of my world.

Many things I thought I'd cherish
Now belong to other lifetimes
And it's time the me(s) I once was
Left the corners of my world.

So I purge and I de-clutter
Striving to be strong and steadfast
Sweeping old dreams and past futures
From the corners of my world.

Things I'd kept for lives I won't lead
Work I'd laid in place for nothing
Things I'd kept with hope and promise
Stowed in corners of my world.

And when they're gone, will I miss them?
Will I remember them at all?
Or were they just passing time there,
In the corners of my world?

And the things I choose to keep now
(Far, far too much, if truth be told) -
How long will they get to stay there,
In the corners of my world?

S.B.