goodbye is hello is goodbye

narrowed his eyes
opened the vault
the wooden box
nails intact
slender crowbar
decades-old cedar
cracking, splintering
smell of stale air
blackened by the dust
cough, cough
this is where he was told
it would be, this is where
he was told to look
and so the calloused hands
from a shovel heavier
than he was
eyes narrowed
and there it was
the…