Buried in Tin



Treasure was buried
as deep as tin.
Small fingers searched
through wood, plastic, and metal,
separating fantasies by color.

Christmas smiled in yellow
three hundred sixty five days a year
upon mama’s sewing machine
from a fruit cake tin turned button home.

Mixed among brand new
were fasteners that
once graced a dress or shirt,
their history winking
at exploring blue eyes.


They were just buttons,
but they were three sister’s gold.
Imagination found diamonds in glass
and adornments for Cinderella’s dress.

Sibling spats were silenced
by the spell cast with yellow.
There was no time for harsh words, only joy.

That Christmas button box
was our once upon a time,
and the fairytales still speak
each time we hold yesterday in our hands.

  


©Susie Clevenger 2012
I am really fortunate that my youngest sister, Debby, has our mother's button box. It truly is magic for me. Some of my best childhood memories are those buttons held in Christmas yellow.
I wrote this from the inspiration of Brain Miller's Poetics ~ Button, Button

Comments

Anonymous said…
Three sisters gold, adornment for Cinderella dresses, lovely tale of childhood magic and freedom to just play!
Chris Lawrence said…
This is so visual and redolent i could smell it, a wonderful piece
Claudia said…
love this...and the fairytales still speak
each time we hold yesterday in our hands...you capture the magic beautifully here..
Dave King said…
A great pleasure of a read. I remember my gran having such a box. Thanks for the reminder and the memories opened up.
Ravenblack said…
Enjoyed this very much, such a beautiful and precious memory and good that you still have this box. Thanks for sharing!
Scarlet said…
Such treasures Susie ~ Like the joyful memories ~
Brian Miller said…
nice....all those buttons need a great treasure chest...and that christmas tin certainly fits the bill...ha...makes them all the more magical....i wanna go through and look at all the buttons now...smiles...
Now that you mention it, I am reminded that my my grandma kept her buttons in a fruitcake tin! I'd forgotten about it.
Lovely poem, Susie!
Susie Swanson said…
Such wonderful treasures Susie and memories..Great poem..
Chris Wood said…
Susie, you had "sibling spats" ? hard to believe..(this from an only child!) ....which is another reason I loved my grandmother's button drawers in her old treadle machine cabinet....no one else around to play with me! Loved playing with those buttons and empty spools.
Nicely done!
Karen Glenn said…
It's good that you have held the box--and the memories-- so close all these years.
Sherry Blue Sky said…
Lovely, Susie. So wonderful that your family saved that treasure box. If we only knew how much those items would mean to us later on, we would have been more diligent about saving stuff. Not much is left of my forebears - I do have my grandma's cane, which was my grandpa's father's cane before that. Must be more than a hundred years old, and now I have it.
Peggy said…
Fun Susie. I did mine on my mom's button box as well--but alas i have no idea where hers went.
Anonymous said…
i like how you turned simple buttons into hands on fairy tales :)


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