The Button Box
She kept her world in it,
natural after a lifetime
of hiding away. When it was opened
it sang like a music box
the lilting notes of home’s landscape
dried wildflowers
and pebbles worn smooth
on the riverbed,
poems and hill-stories,
a pinecone
and underneath that, a bullet casing
and a piece of shattered tree bark
the quiet sing-song tones
of shifting winds and a new language,
melodies from all the different words
she moved into
to stay alive.
Elodie Rose Barnes
Elodie Rose Barnes is an author and photographer. She can usually be found in Spain, Paris or the UK, daydreaming her way back to the 1920s, while her words live in places such as Lucy Writers, Cabinet of Heed and trampset. Current projects include two chapbooks of poetry, and a novel-in-flash on the life of modernist writer Djuna Barnes. Find her online at http://elodierosebarnes.weebly.com, and on Twitter @BarnesElodie.