Moving

Gather the boxes
And pack them
With the accumulation
Of years of living.

Pause for reflection
At discovering
An object unseen
For ages.

Label and stack --
Where will it go?
How will it fit
Into its new home?

Watch as the truck
Is filled with the things
Acquired by sweat,
By inheritance,

By chance,
By investment.
Life
In transition.

It is the end of
Generations
And the beginning of
What?

New relationships,
New places,
New habits,
New growth.

One hundred and twenty-five
Years of attachment
Uprooted and transported
In a weekend.

_____________________

This past weekend we moved my parents from the town in which my mother was born. She has never lived anywhere else -- until now. My father has lived in that town since taking his first job after graduation from college. Added together, it is 125 years of living in the town where I grew up. They now occupy their new home just a few miles from where I currently live.