SUITCASE

Start with this: an old man

With a heavy suitcase 

Appears unexpectedly 

The suitcase is filled

With silver things

Mugs and teapots;

Sugar bowls and creamers

Tongs and fruit knives 

Spoons with filagrees

Spoons with crests 

Souvenir spoons

Spoons specially designed 

For eating grapefruit.

Every object here must

Have a history. The old man --

His name is Daniel -- 

Tells none of them.

He'd promised his wife,

Recently dead, 

To give these things 

To my mother. Having done so

He drinks some water

And walks off.

Long ago I decided 

He was on leave from the story

To which he properly belonged 

And needed to get back.

Somewhere there's a poem

Beginning "An old man

Carrying nothing arrived

Just as I expected him to."