What’s In Your Junk Drawer?

I don't
know if I
have a
junk drawer. But if
I do, it would be
filled with a bunch of
vintage
comic books
I have.

What is in?      
     
Bits of string, bottle tops, vinegar sprinkler,        
(just the top not the whole bottle this slips        
inside the next bottle if I've forgotten to get      
one with a sprinkler, see?)  I haven't the      
patience to use a cruet set besides I use    
my one egg cup for salt. & pepper comes    
with a built in holed shaker/sprinkler top.    
     
Sardine keys, corned beef key, ( these are slot    
B thingies where tab A on the tin slips in then    
you can kinda screw them open and not like keys    
for a keyhole type key and lock. Can opener,      
a corkscrew I've never used, fuses for plugs      
a screwdriver kit of which I've lost the handle    
(these kits are brill they've got loads of    
those things for undoing screws in all shapes    
and sizes and only £1 but no good without the handle, twats!)    
some swizzle sticks, loose pain killers, the packets      
long since ripped apart, O god, in frantic haste...    
       
An unused dummy(pacifier) just in case        
broken rings, broken pens, pencil stubs, lighters      
vape juice (I've long since quit but I'm a ' just in case'er '  
*see siege mentality) a tape measure      
(the cloth one) half set of measuring spoons.      
       
1 egg cup (usually used for salt, see above)    
tin opener different from can opener        
cos this punctures to let liquid out the other      
one cuts the  top of the tin can to get solids out    
or is it the  other way round?      
       
Plastic bags bread is sold in for reuse as freezer      
bags, these get pushed to the back of the drawer      
then, inevitably slip through to the kitchen cupboard      
underneath, to join up with toothpicks aka cocktail sticks      
previous Christmases serviettes, little paper cups for        
baking little cakes in and who on earth could truly be bothered...

my junk drawer is a curiosity
I have candles from my dismantled altar
for conjuring spirits or hexing people
a little prymaid made of resin
different charms
my sage
a lost keychain
odds and ends that I couldn't throw away
my dreams are there too
in lost or forgotten poetry
some junk jewelry
I love it more than gold
my chaos is contained there
the one thing in life I can control

 
In the corner of my room, a drawer
full of things I don't need anymore...
Old papers, pens, keys, and coins
and some emotions that I avoid:

There is anger, that burned me like a flame.
There is guilt, that made me feel ashamed!
There is fear, that kept me from being brave!
There is sadness, drowning me like a wave.

They are buried under the clutter, out of sight
but sometimes they resurface to the light.
They haunt me with their resets and pain.
They remind me of what I could not gain.

But I don't want to face them, or let them go,
I don't want to feel them, or let them show.
So I keep them in the drawer, lock sealed
and hoping that one day, they will be healed.

Define "junk"...

I don't have just one "junk" drawer
I have seven of them....
Yes, an entire (vintage from Craig's List) desk full.

I know exactly what's in each
and exactly where "it" is, in its drawer.

(there's a method to it)

One drawer has scissors, stapeler, zip-ties, staple gun.

Two of them contain all the pens
pencils, envelopes, packing tape, and
sticky-notes paper
that I bought, dirt-cheap
at a hoarder house estate sale

(yeah, go ahead, laugh-- let's see you get all that for ten bucks at Staples or Office Max--
I have no shame, shopping in someone else's house after they die)

Two more drawers
contain all the antique hardware, iron brackets
doorknobs, and
paint color chips---
I need these things.
I'm saving them for my Victorian mansion
by the ocean, once I win Powerball.

(ok, that's 5 drawers accounted for)

Drawer #6, has paper clips
elastics, in-use tape dispensers.

Drawer #7 houses power strips
(you never know when you'll need one)
flashlights
(for rummaging in dark basements and attics, at estate sales)
and printed directions how to program
the thermostats in my house

These things are important, you know.

(oh, and I forgot to mention the keys are in the pen drawer, too-- they go to the padlock on the chain that keeps people from stealing my mailbox mounted on the antique dairy can, which I have secured to the railing on my front stairs )

It's not junk!
None of this is junk!
It's mine and everything has its purpose...
Y'all got nothin' on me!
My "junk" is the most stellar junk, ever !

Yes it’s true that materials play their part,
bricks and mortar, wood and glass,
a colour you found for the front door
that makes the Maple burn its brightest,
but they are all just pieces of a collective,
It’s formed in layers not
specific things or places.
 
It’s the wet nose of a dog that
that nudges onto tears,
a strip of morning sunlight that makes
the dust dance and finds the cat curled,
a coffee mug and its coaster rings
that briefly fog the glass.
 
It sits beside us all for family TV,
stretches out when someone leaves the settee,
kisses in the kitchen waiting for the kettle
and echoes round a Sunday table leaving
laughter on dried up peas and gravy drips.
You can see it breathe as curtains lift,
Its heart is found on the mantel piece,
tracking life in time-checked glances.
 
It’s in that box with all the bits
the drawer with batteries and paper clips
the photographs with aging styles
the turning pages that make us smile
the garage cobwebs and fluorescent light
the tins of screws and moths at night
it’s under the sink at the back of a cupboard,
a vessel of life to be discovered.