My wife began the day
\nwith an ominous word:
\n“Okay\u2014”
\nMore than the word
\nit’s the pause;
\nI hear thunder in the
\nfurniture and lightning
\nin the shelves
\nand if the elves can’t
\nhandle this,
\nwe’ll do it by ourselves\u2014
\nthese things I know,
\ndon’t ask me how.<\/p>\n
I put her off
\nby telling her
\nI hadn’t had my food
\nnor even yet my shower
\nand shave
\nto mellow out my mood.
\nShe smiled and paused
\nand, that abated,
\nhummed while I
\npursued those things
\nand she extremely waited.<\/p>\n
I soon discovered
\nthat the task
\non which she’d set
\nher heart
\nwas to purge
\nmy storage shelves
\nand the yellowed words
\nonce my art.<\/p>\n
Most of it
\nI soon found out
\nwas pages I had clipped,
\nwhole newspapers
\nand articles
\nthat might have sparked my wit
\nand magazines and flyers
\ncoupons, warranties
\nand pages of instructions
\nfor ancient players of VHS
\ncassettes and DVDs.<\/p>\n
We tossed a cardboard carton full
\nand a couple of garbage bags
\nand all the time I wondered why
\nI’d kept this heritage<\/p>\n
Which leads me to this simple thing:
\nthe shelves are almost empty
\nnext time I want to save some stuff
\nI’ll send it to the dumpy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My wife began the day with an ominous word: “Okay\u2014” More than the word it’s the pause; I hear thunder in the furniture and lightning in the shelves and if the elves can’t handle this, we’ll do it by ourselves\u2014 … Continue reading