All My Clothes

It’s a Friday night and I sit in my closet
Looking at all the clothes piled up on the floor.
There are shirts in all colors and sizes,
some newer and some old and worn.
Raggedy jeans and too short shorts are folded
and sitting on piles of outgrown shoes.
Some of these clothes were good clothes,
there was church clothes and play clothes
and all the kinds in between.
Shirts my grandmother had sent,
dresses my mother had made
and souvenir t-shirts from all over.
Worn out summer flip flops sat next to
winter snow boots useless down south.
Patched up jeans were piled in with
colorful summer shorts that had
worn thin from over activity of my
hyper and sugar crazed younger self.
Some outfits had good memories,
like my first real Easter dress
while others were sad,
like the black shoes I wore
to my grandfather’s funeral.
Overall it was nostalgia as I packed them
all up in boxes and plastic bags
to be sent off to people who needed them
much more than I did right then.
As I pack them away I realize
that all my clothes are Goodwill clothes.
Whether I had bought and worn them new
or I had picked them up used in the shop,
all my clothes were bound for one place.
Eventually, all of them would make their way
through the open doors of the Goodwill store
where children would pick out
my old favorite t-shirt and claim it as their own.

October 30, 2002