Cardboard boxes and trunks pile up:
packages and plastic bags,
letters, years-long correspondence,
accounts, taxes, business, personal mail.
Crumbling castle towers
amid furniture and abandoned objects.
Tons of perishables:
jars of unusable soups and vegetables
invading the cupboards,
open boxes, others unopened intact,
boxes of women's magazines,
of daily clippings, thousands of clippings.
National Geographic magazine collections.
Feminine creams, face powders,
make-up, combs of all sizes,
hair clips,
about 500 headscarves,
soaps, aspirin, medicine,
hats, sunhats, more creams, keys,
wholesale clothing of various years and styles,
cameras, binoculars,
two three four
spare plumbing parts, keys, foul smells,
alarm clocks, doorknobs, light bulbs,
hats made of Shetland wool or alpaca or nylon.
Raincoats, seals, unused kitchen appliances
of unknown utility.
Wine bottles, plates of all sizes,
cups, glasses, pots,
candy bowls, sugar bowls, saltshakers,
figurines, birds, flowers, vases,
mermaids, boats, shells,
a figurine of a bird--
it's a beautiful lamp
its body lights up.
Never-used plastic containers,
empty black box. Lost keys.
Photos, albums of strangers,
of hundreds of World War II soldiers,
none that she (or anyone) recognized.
Stained portraits,
frames without photos,
empty black box.
Unfinished projects,
a painting of a rose traced from a magazine.
More photos, huge photos,
some needlework, fabrics purchased
in bulk by the roll
everything is wholesale.
Documents and photocopies. Wills from
different years.
Instruments found:
carpentry tools,
three or four firearms
and dental instruments,
tweezers, scalpels,
scrapers, chisels, hoes.
Miscellaneous handguns and firearms.
A large safe with nothing inside
just a handwritten message:
a curse on us, her close family.
The bronze keys to the house
handed over to the new owner.
There was one lone chair left in
the middle of the room
like in the painting
by Vincent Van Gogh—
the yellow chair, astonished
observing the blue sea.