by Amy Caro

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: November 09, 2010

It is that time of year again

To take out the box with the hats, mittens, and scarves 

As I go through this mound now spread across the floor

I see items that should have gone out the door

Every year they go in the throwaway pile

But somehow they do not get very far

I hold my old pom-pom hat

The one that is red and blue with my name on it that

Is scratchy and shapeless and

Not worn in twenty years

And I wrap the old tattered scarf with the garish colors

Around my neck

Just as uncomfortable this year as last year, what the heck?

And I put on the black pair of mittens

The hole is in the left mitten where it was before

Maybe my vision is in lack,

One of those mittens is not black

There is a force holding me back

I need to say goodbye

And make peace with my sentimental self

These old items will no longer go on the shelf

And out the door they shall go.  

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