Souvenir

Souvenir

When we inherited Moses, his staff

was gone.  No way to part the sea.  But we

hang on to him, anyway.  Let some child

or grandchild sift the residue we leave.

Let him or her decide who gets Moses

or who gets to send him to the thrift shop

to join the detritus of others who

never saw the Holy Land nor brought back

olive souvenirs carved perhaps from trees

that filled the garden at Gethsemane.

                              —Donnell Hunter

                                       18 January 2012