A Box to Go with You
It’s that season. The beginning of another school year. Next week I will drop off my youngest son on a college campus for the first time. He will join his brother and sister on their adulting journeys, and yes, I will officially begin empty nesting. It is so bitter sweet.
As this time approaches, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve prepared him. No, I’ve never expected to meet all of his needs, but have a taught him the most important things? Does he know what really matters? What is stored in all of his boxes?
This poem stems from this wonder. I do not practice Judaism, but I’m fascinated by the phylactery boxes that orthodox Jews have worn around their foreheads to remind them to observe the law. These little boxes are filled with Old Testament texts. Truths to live by.
This poem was first published in my collection, All the Untils.
A Box to Go with You
for Nathan
“. . . talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise . . .” Deuteronomy 6:7
So what has filled this old phylactery?
What will you remember rested between
the frames of your mother’s rueful forehead,
photos, doors, and dreams? Have I left unvoiced
all that was boxed inside this shy heart, trussed,
what should have been hallowed from our rooftop . . .
Love the Lord your God, penned on fragile skin?
Oh, that what I felt, the want of my words
might still speak for Him—all my I love yous,
unrolled with what should be taut, will they wrap
around the good that will pass and later
unfold with those papered promises sought—
my words wound around all of your within
so that my love lives as reminder of Him.
Purchase here: All the Untils
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