Nothing in That Drawer, Part 2

by Katherine, 17
Southwest Learning Centers, Albuquerque, New Mexico

There’s nothing in that drawer.
Nothing.
And it is better that way. No
expectations. None
of those faded photos from a ludic age
where smiles didn’t have to be staged. Not
grandma’s prize-winning recipe
for banana bread with exactly 63 nuts. Never
longing for something that won’t be there.

But the drawer doesn’t carry what’s important.
It is filled with everything it doesn’t contain.
And suddenly, the nothingness of that drawer
becomes something
and standing before it,
open and ajar,
broken, just beginning to heal,
the drawer lays bare everything.

Written in response to "Nothing in That Drawer" by Ron Padgett