Strangers in the Box

This poem was read aloud at the Board of Assistants meeting of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in Mount Laurel, New Jersey earlier this month.  It was very popular with the members attending, and I'll be printing it in the fall 2012 New Hampshire Mayflower Society newsletter, too.

STRANGERS IN THE BOX

by Pam Harazim  

Come, look with me inside this drawer,

In this box I've often seen,

At the pictures, black and white,

Faces proud, still, and serene.

I wish I knew the people,

These strangers in the box,

Their names and all their memories,

Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like,

How did they spend their days?

What about their special times?

I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time,

To tell who, what, where, and when,

These faces of my heritage,

Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate,

Of the pictures we take today?

The faces and the memories,

Someday to be passed away?

Take time to save your stories,

Seize the opportunity when it knocks,

Or someday you and yours,

Could be strangers in the box