School Locker

 (c) 1993

Finally, I dream the locker unlocked—

decades of forgotten combinations,

attempted safe-cracking,

faulty x-ray glasses—

 

only to find the wrong contents—

 

a rusted five-use painter’s tool

for unscrewing  plates and filling holes—

 

a ream of paper.

Once embryos

of novels or essays—

now blank.

 

Read into them what you must.

 

I can’t.

 

Crumpled candy wrappers

scattered inside the locker.

 

Contents I could not go on without—

now unneeded.