Dropbox

They dropped off a dropbox at the corner of Blanche and Michigan. It must have been around September? Maybe October? When they did it. I passed it walking every day. I passed a house, too, that had a blue sign with grey duct tape slapped across it. You could make out the name in white text that used to be visible on the sign underneath the duct tape and the year 2024 was still clear as day below the duct tape. Someone took black sharpie and wrote block letters that read “DEMOCRACY” across the duct tape. The modified yard sign now read Democracy 2024.

November came and went.

The yard sign stayed for a while. But then it probably was put away in December around the holidays.

The dropbox still stayed though. I wondered why.

Everyday I pass it. A giant metal box with yellow, white, and blue. You can’t miss it. It sits there. Visible. But no one takes it away.

Day after day, the dropbox sits next to the playground. Children and parents play, laugh, and weave through the playground. The dropbox is still there.

Dogs and their owners walk past. Little league teams practice baseball on the field. The dropbox is still there.

It’s not being used as a dropbox. I wonder if it is now the gatekeeper of the park. But no one pays it any mind. People come and go.

December turned into January. The dropbox is still there. I wondered why.

The fires happened. Trees came down. Ash fell everywhere. But the dropbox is still there.

Maybe January was supposed to be when the dropboxes get picked up? But the fires happened and so pickup was delayed?

January turned into February. February into March. March into April. The dropbox is still there.

There isn’t an election coming up, I don’t think? I wonder why it’s still there.

Day after day, scene after scene, the world goes on. But the dropbox is still there.

I wonder if it will stay there all year.

I wonder why they didn’t pick it up.

Is it something we no longer need? A relic of a bygone era?

No one has picked it up.

Someone should tell someone that it is still there.

The dropbox is still there.