Remember 8-Track tapes?
I used to own a milk crate full.
My father, the tightwad who refused
to fund a semester abroad,
lugged it up five flights
the day he moved me
into my last college dorm.
And floppy disks?
I bought a hundred on sale
the June my sister claimed Grandma’s pearls
thirty minutes after the funeral.
The 5 1/4 inch boxes sat
abandoned for years
beside a Betamax VCR.
After years of hoarding,
I’m pleased to say,
my attic is emptying out.
I’ve pitched the electric keys
used to type that scathing letter to Aunt Jill
and the Polaroid that snapped
so many pictures of Mother’s frown.
Same goes for the slide projector
and the decision of who to exclude
from vacation slideshow parties.
Jacqueline Jules is the author of the poetry chapbooks, Field Trip to the Museum (Finishing Line Press) and Stronger Than Cleopatra (ELJ Publications). Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Killing the Angel, Imitation Fruit, Connecticut River Review, and Pirene's Fountain. She is also the author of two dozen books for young readers. Visit her online www.jacquelinejules.com.
Kelly Nelson
My Uncle at Nineteen
His Mother Writes
the Warden, 1955
Jon-Michael Frank
Funny How Time Slips Away
Not Fade Away
Jacqueline Jules
Obsolete Angers
J. Bradley
Yelp Review:
Planned Parenthood
of Greater Orlando
Yelp Review:
The Milk Bar
Amy Schriebman Walter
Hope in a Yellow Dress
Miho Kinnas
Earlobes
Mark Povinelli
Notes I
Notes II
Kenneth Nichols
The Best Writers
Bombed the SAT
John Patsynski
The Money Weapon
Aileen Bassis
Pellucid Musing
Travis Macdonald
When the Map's Crease
Becomes an Axis
and Detaches
Kris Hall
Pyromanian I
Pyromanian II
Claire Scott
Harbor Lights
Elizabeth Kate Switaj
Poseidon's Canto