Will Not Be Persuaded

My parents gave me a plastic box
filled with mementos
from my childhood and youth.
I guess they thought
they were things I’d like to keep.
But you know, we live
in a small house
and I don’t like stuff
so to be honest
I threw most of it away,
like the plastic bouquet
of white flowers
from that day I was May queen
like the two plastic plates
featuring my early artwork
like the multiple copies
of my graduation photo
in which I’m smiling
and I can only imagine
I’m smiling with the joy
of leaving.
But I found a few treasures,
a few things I’ll keep,
like a typed up piece of paper
from when I was ten years old
where I have written
that my favourite subject is English
because I like writing
and that my ambition
is to be an archaeologist
but that I would probably
change my mind
and I did change my mind
about a thousand times
and I see now
that I could have saved myself
a lot of trouble
by keeping that piece of paper
in my pocket
because even though
I didn’t become an archaeologist
I do like digging around
in the ground of my own mind
and I still like writing
so really it was all right there.
But you know, the best thing I found
was an entry on page two
of my nursery school diary
when I was just three years old
and a teacher had written
“Leah will not be persuaded
to do anything she feels
she does not want to do”
and you know, whatever that was
it has stayed with me
and whatever that is
it has been the blessing
and the curse
by which I have lived.