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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Limits of Imagination the Down in the Dirt January - April 2024 issues collection book		get the 422 page January - April 2024 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Family Gold

Diane Funston

Little remained
Of the past
photograph albums
A comb
Some eyeglass cleaner
Hand-held mirror

The jewelry was sold
Melted down for money
from the gold
Grandparents wedding rings
engagement rings
My great-grandmother’s aquamarine
Birth-stone
The cash and carry of life

Jewelry container
glass screw top
1930s vintage
thrown down garbage chute
in apartment hallway
Then photographs
not even hers to discard

Like much of my childhood
things I wanted to keep
gone away...

I’ve replaced some from eBay
Those Funny Face drink mugs
The old Chinese checkers set
A water globe from Niagara Falls
Rochester Savings toy bank
Sugar Easter eggs from Germany

The memories I wish
I could replace—
The back-handed slap
for the warm apron of Grandma
A hug from time to time
Never outgrowing them

I always wanted family gold
but memories are sold
for quick cold cash
Or just plain discarded
Some, the mark long gone
sting still burns
like a branding iron

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