Cuffs And Coins

Passing through my father’s room

on the way to find shoe trees, I see

he still hangs his best pants, cuffs first,

from the sock drawer. Still keeps small

change in a jar with coded colours

for the dimes and nickels and quarters.

His cuff links burnished in a small bowl.

It has always been this way, an order

inviolate, like Ozymandias in the sand.  

When my children were born I too 

became a pant hanger and coin collector. 

Tradition received is tradition honoured.

Now I wonder if my kids will long remember 

Cuffs tucked clinically in the drawer. 

Coins in jars on the bureau top.

Or simply the idea of a man facing 

evening with his bureau ordered just so.