Rusty Nails

Rusty nails in a cardboard box.
What did you see worth keeping?
I’d like to know.

I remember your hands — they shook
when holding old things as if mesmerized,
and I wonder

what treasures your mind created
out of rusty nails and old strings?
What poetic notion

let you dream beyond the dust?
What golden vision took you there?
I need to know...

Rusty nails in a cardboard box
a poetic legacy, words to a song...
oh, had I asked you then... I so need to know.