archives to ashes
what happens when the museum burns down –
the space that’s supposed to hold your history
the archives and artifacts
the record of your past?
we know this happens –
the county courthouse burned down
taking its deeds to the grave
leaving us unsure of our own house’s age
the Library of Congress burned
not once but twice
leaving Thomas Jefferson to reseed it
with his own books
but for these little western mining towns
what burns with the history museum?
photographs, yearbooks, maps and bits of settler life
mine scrip and speakeasy keepsakes
our memories are so faulty
without bits of concrete evidence
it’s too easy to have license
to create a new past
