if we keep love letters in a cigarbox and are no longer in love; are they still love letters?

why keep love letters in a cigar box? The size? Privacy? Convenience? Is it because we treasure the aroma of a good letter and the feeling it gives us?

when do love letters lose their potency? when the person is no longer the object of our affection and the letters only cause ill feelings of distrust and abandonment? or do they remind us of a more romantic time when time did not cage in our passions but allowed us the freedom to express our deepest emotions?

yes- love letters are eternally love letters; only we can bring them to life again from the cold, dark, emptiness of their current dungeon.

my question now is – do we dare unwrap the power held inside each envelope? scribbled on the back of the crumpled postcard or hall pass?