Moved.

Verdine, Through the Thicket, Across the Meadow, To the Woods, 2013

The CACHE

Behind the house in a field

there's a metal box I buried

full of childhood treasure, a map

of my secret place, a few lead pennies

from 1943.

The rest I've forgotten,

forgotten even the exact spot

I covered with moss and loam.

Now I'm back and twenty years

have made so little difference

I suspect they never happened,

this face in the mirror

aged with pencil and putty.

I suspect even

the box has moved as a mole would move

to a new place long ago.

Dan Gerber