All those photos and slides
old passports in their blue leather sleeves
the spreadsheet of a family tree
missing some limbs
cruelty or whim
the atheist and love child left off the map
the maybe-mulatto brother-in-law
zap
gone in the flick of an eraser nib
a baby bib
stitched with ducks
birth certificates, diplomas
yearbooks from K through 10
what are we hoping to reap
from all these buckteeth
hoop earrings
leisure suits with their MoTown lapels
pic of Great Aunt Sally in her wedding dress
and mud-caked boots
poor, these roots
Grandma wore torn hose to Mass
held fast
to her withered Bible
and look
who took
this photo of the family giant
with his gargantuan hands
beside him stands
his dwarfen wife
Bigfoot and Thumbelina
a freak and his czarina
a blood draw would say we are kin
but deeper within
underneath all the genetics
kinetics
is there anything else that links us
there is a waste basket waiting
angels berating
tsk-tsking
that we would even consider
jettisoning this stuff.