guitar

that moment snuck up on me all the sudden, the right time:

I walked to the closet in the other room

and I riffled to the back

and I pulled out the bag with the tape that said

DO NOT OPEN UNTIL SPRING 2012.

it wasn't quite time, yet

but I knew that deadline was dramatic,

and now I'm removed enough to be relative.

and I can say

now it's been time enough.

it was just a single layer of garbage bag, in the end,

that I'd taped up so extensively

as if bedbugs weren't gonna come through that? as if there were no holes?

and I ripped it open, and unhinged the case,

and pulled out my first and only guitar

and played all the songs I hadn't played in a year

just the same as before

and they sounded the same.