Hoarders: Tara
Orlando, Florida
My name is Tara and I’m 55 years old Precious Moments angel statue
I would not classify myself as a hoarder, more of a rescuer of Target receipts
When I first moved in it was just mostly boxes because I was moving in then I tried to unpack but everything just got put wherever Martha Stewart magazines
I just started asking God that I would like to know what it would be like to have an organized sea of stuffed frogs
A bed looks like a bed with picnic baskets
And your table doesn’t have stuff on it it’s a painting of a cornucopia
And the couch you can sit on it people can sit on it like American girl dolls
Well I’ve finally come to the realization I have too much Praise Hymn compact discs
I told God that I just have this one wish and this one dream that Lord you just send someone to help Jesus Christ Hearts Me Florida license plate holder
My mother, she had a one-bedroom Nativity set
We all ended up sleeping in the same crumbling Family Circus comic strip
I didn’t know how a house was supposed to be tangle of mismatched electronic cords
I haven’t been in the closet in five years because Victorian dolls
I realized I have to let some things go because how am I ever going to get out of this mayhem and foolishness if I don’t Walking in Wisdom Embracing Love 2005 calendar
You have to be willing to do the work McDonald’s minions Happy Meal toys
You have to be able to let it go uncashed paycheck from 2008
If you don’t, it will swallow you flattened American flag balloon
My brain is not wired for this 18-year old pile of unopened mail
I’m trying to recover from a migraine marching penguin with Santa hat
I’ll do that tomorrow but then tomorrow something else happens candy cane stuck to the floor
Whoa, that’s my vertigo lint roller covered in lint
I don’t want to deal with cordless phones coated in dust
I need to breathe nearly natural poinsettias
I’m hoping and praying for a miracle unused Trisha Yearwood tickets from 1999
I always felt like if Jesus came to the door and opened the door
I would have felt so shamed because I wasn’t showing
gratefulness and pink Jesus Christ “Enjoy” baseball cap in Coca Cola font
Those are mine, I keep those Bed Bath and Beyond crystal Kleenex holders
I didn’t realize there was so much dust Easter bunny
I have done the Lord’s work humbly Thomas Kinkaide puzzle of Cinderella castle
Yes and with tears
Copyright © 2016 by Kate Durbin. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 31, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.
“This poem from my latest body of work is about the A&E reality TV show Hoarders. Like the TV show, the poems in Hoarders are organized to focus on specific individuals and their things.”
—Kate Durbin