Archive
by Sandra L. Chaff
The archives is . . . a site of memory and a place of trauma and pain. It is a place of sorrow and loss for many, where unpacified ghosts . . . await, yielding stories and letters different from expectation.
—Fiona Murphy
She wanted to love him I can see that now It’s all there
in the letters She a new wife willful naive it is 1940
He works the night shift they leave each other notes
each morning her urgent script on 70-year-old pages
translating to him her feelings earnest declarations from what
must seem to her the deepest spring of caring This surprises her
evidenced by the slant sentences pressure of pen nib rush
of words expressing a fondness no one would ever suspect
fifty years later Here in the archive The arc of a life
a relationship of love He is kind writes calm affectionate
responses unaware She craves more After months of earnest expression
she wearies Her ardor unmet in kind starts to wane her script
tightens As the arc begins its downward slope her words do not
change as much as disappear begin to drop out ink becomes lighter Soon
it is clear she is disillusioned It is not an era when men and women
talk about such dissonance His notes to her change little And so it is
revealed how lives began to drift how she begins to drift away and sadness
like a fog creeps in
Sandra Chaff is an archivist and attorney who lives in Philadelphia. Her poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Six, and the 2017 Moonstone Featured Poets Anthology, among other publications. She is a founding member of the long-running poetry collective 34th Street Poets, who have performed their poetry in and around Philadelphia, including as part of the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival.