Demolition of a Former Life

The air is thick with humidity

And we're removing what remains

Of a family's belongings

From an utterly ruined house.

 

We're clad in protective clothing and

Menacing looking respirators.

We all look like a warped version of

Muffled laughter comes from behind the masks

As we cart away load after load

Of memories.

***

I break away and enter a bedroom,

Pulling drawers full of clothing

From beneath a giant waterbed.

 

Suddenly I feel like I'm trespassing.

 

I find myself staring at piles of items

That I have no business looking at.

 

I imagine strangers tearing through

My things and wonder what they'd think

Of the life left behind of a small fellow

Before I know it, I'm an inch away

From actually shedding tears

For a family that I've never met.

 

Another Darth Vader peeks her head

Into the bedroom and we bring out the

***

The house is now empty with its guts

Spilling over the curb onto the street.

 

We grab sledgehammers, and crowbars

Teaching ourselves how to dismantle

Somewhere through the chaos

We are all learning how