Receipts
I’ll keep these for a time
Since they mark and note
The trip I took not so far
Away or so long ago
Pay slips from the turnpike
To represent my drives
Out and back, a map of
A town back home I found
At a station kiosk—sometimes
These are surprise-filled
Documents, even for a
Place I know
Coffee receipts out, those
For sandwiches on the
Way back in
Business card for a city
Place, the kind of which
We do not have in my
Small town, but at which
I had lunch with my family
Saint Vincent de Paul, whose
Thrift store I visited with my
Sister, where I bought a small
Piece of clear-black glass
An olive oil store—a
Festive, promising
New niche place—I
Got a narrow bottle of
Honey-serrano vinegar
For my brother-in-law
Who cooks a lot
Purchase record for a
Calendar I bought
On sale and then the
Best—a paper testimony
From a local bookstore
How I wish there were
More like this! I had gift
Card, it had the books
There are other neighbor
Places to support—those
Selling food and clothing and
Art-expression pieces from
Those makers starting out
Close by
But these books will do
They were my part in
My going, my time away, and
My returning afterward
My small trip—for
Now, a small-documented
Odyssey
clcouch123 
January 5, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Meaningful mementos, significant journeying 🙂
January 5, 2016 at 6:56 pm
Thanks! A short time away–I guess I try to make it count.
January 5, 2016 at 9:06 pm
What a lovely post on the reverie of receipts.
January 6, 2016 at 10:58 pm
You’re right about a reverie. Thanks!
January 5, 2016 at 9:12 pm
I enjoyed this poem. I liked how you saved the receipts like saving memories. Like you want to scrapbook them as if they were pictures. And perhaps they are but only memory pictures. Great poem!
January 6, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Thank you! It’s true that they represent, and invoke, memories. They’re really not scrapbook-worthy and yet, as you say, they are “memory pictures.” Sometimes I turn the sturdier ones into bookmarks. That’s something, I guess.
January 6, 2016 at 3:42 am
Oh! You took us with your trip through your small travel trinkets! What a way of seeing things! Great job!
January 6, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Many thanks! I find I do make piles of these things, then go through them reflectively afterward. It’s become a habit. Maybe now I know why.
January 7, 2016 at 1:15 am
It is such a great habit to form! Because great memories can be recalled with small trinkets. 🙂
January 17, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Some years ago, and every year since, I noted that all the receipts I enter into Quicken and file in monthly folders by date make a diary of our lives. I can put them in order and track our route for any given day. They show us exactly what we value, And, all too often, they record our foolishness,
January 18, 2016 at 4:21 am
Yes, they do shows us. Mine would reveal my Erasmus-like approach to books. I buy them first and then turn to food and clothes. Thanks for your response!