The people in the wicker basket

by Dörthe Huth
 
 
The people lie in a wicker basket
under grandmother´s phone in
black & white, unsorted & ignored since
over 50 years - once again I take
one of them in my hand & recognize:
                             a human being
with familiar facial features - maybe
a relative or simply a coincidence &
again, the child I was once wants to
learn about the past & I ask: who is that?
But my grandmother says: there is
no time for that now - I have to
cook / make phone calls / water the flowers
and the next time comes
the uncle / neighbour / some visit
maybe a photo has been taken of
a person whose face later on I can
not classify.
 
When her eyes wane, my grandmother says,
we'll do it when your aunt is here
she knows these people too.
The aunts come, talk a lot & die;
my questions remain unanswered.
One day, my grandmother says,
Here: you have the photos you always wanted.
My eyes no longer focus, anyway.
I take the bag home and
look at each person again.
I can do something with a few
known facial features but no acquaintances:
No one is left to tell me about my story
 
so I throw them away.
 

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Dörthe Huth is a writer from Germany, holding an M.A. degree in German, Psychology and Computational Linguistics. In addition to several book publications about joy of life she is also represented with her poems and essays in anthologies and literary magazines. See her English website: https://doerthe-huth.jimdosite.com/