Take back these old letters / They're fetters 'round the brain

(The title belongs to a woman whom I'd credit if I could remember her name.)

I'm two days into an apartment reorganization mission. And this morning, I stumbled over the cleaning stumbling-block, a box of old letters.

Love letters whose prophecies proved false. Postcards from the world, mostly from my Dad. Christmas cards from my paternal grandparents, who have both died. Photographs sent in cards, labeled on the back. Cards from people whose names I have to strain to place. Five years in a life in correspondence.