A Box of Buttons

The day it came upon us to go through grandma's house

Inside her bedroom closet way up high upon a shelf

I found a box of buttons some made of metal some of bone

So many different colors some were faded and looked old

I poured those buttons on the table wondered stories they could tell

One looked like it's from the army and it looked like it had gone through hell

I remember seeing photos of distant cousins over seas

Some came home and others didn't that's the sad reality

All of those buttons hold onto the past

Of people and places that help make them last

Collected for decades from here and from there