Memoir Poem: unknown mistakes

I didn’t know it was supposed to be preserved

I didn’t know it was a souvenir

I was a teenager, what did I know?

Circles of soap were in a display box

Smooth palm-sized colored discs

Individually wrapped like candy

Scented by roses

When you realized what I’d done

You scolded me

How could I not see?

They weren’t meant for ordinary

Everyday use

They weren’t meant to be used at all

Like a forbidden apple

Not meant to be consumed

You should’ve put a label on

A warning clue to never use it

Because it belonged to grandma

Your mother who had passed

You wanted it to remind you of her forever.

I was so sorry I ruined it.

I dried it off

Rewrapped it in cellophane

Returned it to the plastic box

Where it remained in shame.

Now I understand how you felt even more

Because everything you had and held

Is so rare and precious now that you’re gone

I’m sorry mama.

So often we can’t understand

The hidden details of life

Until they happen.