Cardboard Cutout

[~Sophia~]

Cardboard Cutout



The box, much like a heart

is a container of things.

Sometimes, important things.



Like the old reinforced shoebox
that stoically harbors a diary
describing your first kiss. The
“I'll love you forever” poem he
wrote - full of misspelled words.

Concert ticket stubs.



Or a moving box marked “Fragile”
in big red letters - filled with
Christmas cheer, faithfully
revisited year after year.



I wonder why we don’t consider

the box once we’re done with it.
Callously wielding a blade without
remorse - slash here, gash there
until it's flat - ready for the trash. 



In retrospect,
that’s no way
to treat a heart.

[Silas Thorne]

I love the idea of the cardboard boxes storing past histories and what we do to our past histories, mentally. (that's my take on it anyway ;) )

Just a personal thing, but some of the lines stuttered a bit for me.

Like an old reinforced shoebox
stoically harboring a diary
describing that first kiss and the
“I'll love you forever” poem he
wrote - full of misspelled words,

concert ticket stubs.

In this section, I'm not quite sure where 'concert ticket stubs' fits in, since you seemed to be describing the poem he wrote here.

Or a moving box marked “Fragile”
in big red letters brimming with
Christmas memories to be faithfully
reconstructed year after year.



This line seems to run on a bit. Maybe a comma after letters? or the line 'brimming with Christmas memories'?

Just my opinion. Probably missed something special.

[~Sophia~]

Hi Silas, you may be right on the run-ons. I was kind of thinking laundry list of contents. My boxes are always a jumble of all kinds of things that when examined, are my life. I just made a couple of edits. Hope they help!

[a_little_wisp]

It's not always the contents that are fragile, you're right - it's the heart. ^^ You're so brilliant.

My Dad accuses me of being a pack rat, and he's likely right. But I think we invest so much emotion into some objects- even the simplest of things, like a pen, or a wind-up box with a broken lullaby - that giving them up means giving up a piece of ourselves. I've always kept the same cardboard boxes- some are falling apart. I've had them since my first move to Myrtle Beach.

And it works the same way with my heart. It hasn't been broken yet, or used terribly, and so it's... well, it's kind of old, but young at the same time. You know, people see me sometimes having too much of a 'child' in me, but I think that's how it should be. And if someone who wants to be with me wishes me to change my heart, trade it in, or once it's broken, forget to mend it- I couldn't do it. And I try not to flatten it out with hate or loathing, either. So I promise you I will continue to watch out for it.

You've done it again, Sophia!!

- Stunned me with your sure use of language, that is, and your grasp on matters of all things of the heart.

[PrinceMyshkin]

My Dad accuses me of being a pack rat, and he's likely right. But I think we invest so much emotion into some objects- even the simplest of things, like a pen, or a wind-up box with a broken lullaby - that giving them up means giving up a piece of ourselves. I've always kept the same cardboard boxes- some are falling apart. I've had them since my first move to Myrtle Beach.

And it works the same way with my heart. It hasn't been broken yet, or used terribly, and so it's... well, it's kind of old, but young at the same time. You know, people see me sometimes having too much of a 'child' in me, but I think that's how it should be. And if someone who wants to be with me wishes me to change my heart, trade it in, or once it's broken, forget to mend it- I couldn't do it. And I try not to flatten it out with hate or loathing, either. So I promise you I will continue to watch out for it.



It wouldn't be saying nearly enough (or much) if I said I'd trust your heart more than I would the US Federal Reserve, but if, God forbid, your heart should ever be broken, maybe this would be of use:


"God can mend a broken heart if you give Him all the pieces."

[~Sophia~]

It's not always the contents that are fragile, you're right - it's the heart.

And it works the same way with my heart. It hasn't been broken yet, or used terribly, and so it's... well, it's kind of old, but young at the same time. You know, people see me sometimes having too much of a 'child' in me, but I think that's how it should be.

My dearest Wispy... no matter how old you get, you can't be too happy, have too much fun or have too much child in you. Unfortunately, few of us escape having our hearts broken yet, they do mend with time and it's the child in you that has the wonder and the courage to re-boot and start again. Never loose that!!! Thanks for being your sweet huge hearted self!