Moving Objects

I'm trying to find an object around me which tells a story,
but I can't.
That's the problem with relocating.
Yes, we brought across old items with us,
but they've lost the ability to speak
since having been decontextualised.

I wonder what my grandparents would have made of all this?
They travelled so far for a better life
with no possessions save a determination to survive.
Maybe that's why they were such compelling story-tellers:
they couldn't rely on physical prompts,
and so, over time, they didn't need to.

Daniele Nunziata is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Oxford where he researches postcolonial writing, drawing on his own Cypriot family background to do so. He is a contributor to Writers Make Worlds and tweets @DannyNunziata.