March 2023
B. Fulton Jennes
b.fulton.jennes@gmail.com
Bio Note: I'm a retired educator and active member of my community, serving as its poet laureate and general nuisance for everyone to read and write more poems. What I'm NOT is a neatnik tidier-upper, but rather a fervent hoarder/collector/displayer. So when I read last week that Marie Kondo, the decluttering queen whose credo is "only keep it if it brings you joy," has given up on tidying her home following the birth of her third child, I rejoiced. My poem "Accumulation" makes it clear why.

Accumulation

I am a hoarder of joy
the trinkets of having had 

I build shelves
from ceiling to floor

every spare space
a mouth awaiting teeth

I showcase my trophies
like taxidermied heads 

look 
here is all I have loved

there is nothing here
I can surrender

without these reminders
I would forget my life

where and when
who and whom

do not ask me to give up
these relics these bones

I have already fasted 
already buried enough

©2023 B. Fulton Jennes
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