They asked me if I would visit
This dark place with mysteries unknown,
For to find some long lost treasurers:
A briefcase, a letter, a bone.
Upward I move toward the attic
As a rat jumps out of my way.
The stair is broken and rotting;
The railing has fallen away.
The briefcase is in the closet
My candle so clearly revealed;
Inside, the forbidden letter
In an envelope hot-wax sealed.
The bone is truly mysterious.
When Grandpa had tried to rebel
His fibula got extracted
Just after he fell in the well.
I find it by skillful searching
Deep in the old family trunk,
Behind a bogus partition,
Wrapped up in some cotton, with junk.
(September 1996)