• Sitting here under the dim light
    Searching through the old tin boxes
    Back from my collage years in the dorm
    That now seem like so long ago

    Opening one and finding old treasures
    Bottle caps, scraps of paper for notes,
    And old photographs of my friends and I

    But I open the top of one of the tins
    And I smell that sweet scent
    That brings back all the memmories
    Of my since-dead mother.

    Her perfume on every letter there
    Which made me slightly homesick
    But made me happy at the same time
    Because I knew she was thinking of me.

    "Hello my love," she would start out,
    "Hoping school is going alright.
    The family is doing fine now
    And I'm feeling much better today

    "Your brothers and sisters are growing up
    They can't wait to see you next week
    Summer vacation seems so close now
    I can't wait to see you

    "I love you forever, Mom"
    Was the last letter she wrote to me
    And the flood of tears came back
    Just like the day I got home.

    "Your mom died last night,"
    My father said when I got in
    "Her last words were to send you her best
    If she didn't make it to see you today."

    I shook my head, eyes filled with tears
    Saying it was a lie, a crule joke
    But her bed was made up and empty
    As if she had never existed at all

    But I wonder now if she's watching me
    From wherever she is now
    Watching her oldest child grow up
    While I wait for another letter from home.