Unbidden

Documents in a museum.
Damaged by rain, fire, and age.
Conflagrations of history,
anger and neglect.

Some you save.
Some you hold on to.
Most you file away, never to be seen again
or so you expect.

The thing is, the wreckage never heals.
Restoration is rare
and never as complete
as you believe it to be.

Fires rise unbidden,
and you find yourself
in the midst of it.
saving it all over again

About this poem

Old wounds have a way of reappearing in life. Restoration, on people and places, is rarely complete.

The photograph was taken at the Rogers Store museum in Surry County, Va.

Tom