Still Life on an End Table

I sit in my living room in an-off white upholstered wingback chair. My laptop sits in front of me on a wooden TV tray.

On my right is a curio end table, glass top and sides, embraced by what appears to be walnut wood. Resting inside the rectangular glass table top are one rose-colored, three-inch high, crystal vase which came from my now-deceased Aunt Flossie; an ivory-with-pink-flowers miniature china tea set; a pink silk flower from my wedding day; an ivory-with-pink-carnations china bowl from my now-deceased Mother; a pink ceramic rose from my Aunt Flossie(?); and a two-inch diameter, blue-embossed, miniature glass globe with a flat base.

On top of the end table lay two books: the 2010 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion and a Bible. The Bible is a double-wide margin Oxford with gold-edged paper; some pages are torn. On the front is my name, Carol Hamby, engraved in gold. A tattered sticker of The Way Corps seal adheres to the front black leather cover. I think I bought that Bible in 1978; it's full of notes.

Alongside the books sit two clear gray coasters from Tupperware; a "Puppy Love" Hummel my husband brought me from one of his Germany trips in the 1980s; a black, cream, and rose colored ceramic vase which was a wedding gift; a flash drive; and the ripped-open package that once housed the flash drive.

In the ceramic vase are various pieces of Art-o-mat: a black and white photograph of the Eiffel Tower by Corey Hengen, cards by K. Shelly, a lenticular of an acrobat by Heather Lowe, a black-and-white photography book of American backyard sheds by Jennifer Watson, a fold-out black-and-white pinhole photography book of still scenes by Chuck Flagg, a black-and-white nude photography key chain by William Gentry, a picture-book entitled Volund by Nathan Boyer, and five colored-photo match books depicting five different landscapes of the United States.

Wow. That's amazing.

All that stuff inside and
on top of a curio end table.

Each item with a story.
Each, an art piece in itself.

Hands crafted each curve,
each angle,
each crevice and nook.
Or at least crafted the machines that
crafted the nooks.

I wonder how many hands? and
How many minds? and
How many countries? and
How many generations? are
Represented on and in this
one little end table?

An end table that has just taken me
to the ends of the earth.

As I sit here in my living room
in this chair with wings.

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