ESTATE SALE

by Lorri Ventura


A cluster of dust-covered Hummels
Surround a Japanese puzzle box
Hand-knitted sweaters in toppling piles
Reek of cigarette smoke

Stacks of carnival glass dishware
Playfully cast prisms on faded walls
Dozens of boxes bulge with books
And sheet music

Sepia photos
With curled edges
Share unsmiling faces
Long gone

Crowds of barterers
Seek the adrenalin rush
They get from
Successful low-balling
For items they can resell
At a profit

Memory-triggering tchotchkes
More trash than treasure
Vestigial remains of a priceless life


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Lorri Ventura is a retired special education administrator living in Massachusetts. She is new to poetry-writing. Her poems have been featured in several anthologies, in Red Eft Journal, and in Quabbin Quills. She is a two-time winner of Writing In A Woman's Voice's Moon Prize.