The Box

I’m cardboard, but I’m not boring.
Not just brown: sand brown.
Beauty lies within. I’m not a thing
of single use. You used to know that.

I can be anything you want,
remember? Play house, pet bed, train.
I can keep secrets stored away,
never to be revealed again.

I can protect fragile things
from all but the removal men.
I can even be a coffin. I might not survive that;
then again, one can’t survive everything.

Store me flat-pack till you need me.
I’ll bounce back. I am not full of empty
promises. I’m multi-dimensional. Universal.
Think of me more as all your life compressed.