Recycling Poem by Landis Everson

How did the valentines age so fast?
Most of the names are forgotten.
Billy, Billy, Billy, Jill
I think strangers sent them out like advertising
hoping I'd surrender. But

Jill, Jill, Jill and Billy Bill,
shared memories aren't easily kept.
Secrets wash out of the ocean blank all over.
I am sitting on a beach chair
somewhere in the middle of the century, pretending

I remember a garden of broken banjos and
butterflies,
old movies. Valentines from Valentino,
Notes from Norma. Worms and spiders
thrown at waves.
Box of my names, shut up.