Dark Room was published online in 2025 by @theagecollective, an organization that exists to challenge ageism and celebrate the depth, complexity, and significance of growing older. Read the digital anthology here: https://www.theagecollective.com/GOLD-Digital-Anthology.pdf

DARK ROOM

I’m in the basement, purging.
I’m sluicing, dodging, burning,
sorting through decades of detritus.
They call it downsizing.

I’m pouring memories into a plastic tray
and swirling to see what comes up.
There are my old friends: pain and disappointment.
There are my younger faces, traced with rue and worry.

And then, speckled with years, streaked
with tears, softened by grace, today’s face,
emerging from the negative.

I dust off my hands and shut the door
on this dark room of memory.
No more downsizing for me.

Today I’m enlarging,
wide open to the light.

Photo Credit: Katherine Matiko