Can You See Anything?

Stinky basement of my old house
Burial vault
Ghosts
Haunted
Sifting
Through debris
Appearing from the dust and mouse shit
Three black binders
I open the first.
Filled with poetry
Typewritten
Before computers
Who wrote this stuff?
As I flip pages
Spiders scurry away
Over mouse-chewed pages
Stained with urine
But alive, somehow

“can you see anything?”

“yes, wonderful things!”

As a kid
Wished I could discover a pharaoh’s tomb
Like Carter and Carnovan
But this
Wiriting
A treasure
Or a curse?

Today I see the three notebooks
On the bottom shelf
Waiting patiently
Until I have the courage to see the treasure

“Yes, wonderful things”

Does every tomb have a curse or should I just open the notebooks?

“can you see anything?
“yes”

12-9-06