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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

My Brother's Lunch Box


My brother’s lunch box, 

our names scratched atop

lengthwise and cross wise,


several years apart in age, 

a shared history of school lunches, sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, handmade in the kitchen at the farm


generations 

of brothers and sisters, 

since passed through many schools.

Lunch from noisy cafeterias, glossy vending machines,

from colourful lunch bags, insulated lunch kits

or just plain brown paper bags.


memories of my school days 

in this old, dented green and white lunch pail 

filled with bobbins, thread and sewing supplies, 


a reminder of how my big brother and I 

shared this dented experiences

from an early age ~

later on in life in a very unexpected way ~

epilepsy in adult life, 

symptoms, medications, and life’s limitations.


Were the names scratched on that same lunch pail 

an innocent prescient of what was later to be?


“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain

will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.”

               ~ William Shakespeare

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