cleaning out
an old apartment
(new to you)

unremarkable contents
of the cheap and shallow
medicine cabinet
include a straight razor
with one massive nick
in its rust-flecked blade

bottle of iodine
wood-shafted cotton swab
on the glass shelves lined
with folded paper towels

as stated
unremarkable
except
for a kid’s ring 
plastic shank
set with plastic gem
centered by itself
on one shelf

imagine that kid
now an adult wondering
where her ring had gone
although it’s more likely that 
she doesn’t remember
at all
her onetime treasure
left behind
for you to find
in an old apartment
(new to you)

you will
soon enough
toss those abandoned artifacts
into the trash
as you prepare  
the place where you
are going to live
to be your own

a new place
to leave your stuff
when you go

I think I could be
happily a worm

if I was not so terrified
of ending up drowned
on a concrete walk
after a storm

Forced to leave
dark soil
surrounded by roots
where I’d been
most grounded
or worse
desiccated upon
a blacktopped driveway

where even
the slightest sunlight
could take from me
my pink life
and leave behind
my dark leather corpse

Even the robins
will not take that

Will leave me instead
to disappear bit by bit
into a trail of ants
bearing me
down the hatch
into their small volcano
of a home
in the sand
along the fence

I could be happily a worm
if I knew I’d be 
remaining
forever or for at least a few seasons
away from all
grounded and blind
underground