A few more poems about how my life is going since I moved. And I’m happy to say the final boxes have been unpacked, the stuff has been all put away, and the last piece of furniture – a chair and ottoman – has been recovered and moved in. Now I have no more excuses for not getting my writing work done.
This painting of Bob and me hangs in my entry hall (by Alice Matzkin)
I’ve been stalling
Lallygagging over breakfast
Reading the next
Old New Yorker
From my pile,
Reading the news,
Taking the trash out,
Filing away last month’s
Journal entries into
My secret folder.
Finally here I am
Writing my daily
Ten-minute poem
Which stinks, by the way.
And is much too short
And void of meaning
Or details. But still
I keep my fingers moving
The advice I got early on
When I didn’t have
An idea in my head
To write about.
I must be getting religious
I bought a kosher Mezuzah scroll
To fill the empty Mezuzah
We bought in Israel.
I never knew it was missing
We just put it up in our old house
Thinking it was a blessing.
So I found the scroll on Amazon.
Who would have thought
We could buy one there?
Who would have thought
It was better to buy one
That some expert with
Skills like a calligrapher
Hand drew every tiny letter
in black ink on a two-inch square
piece of heavy white paper.
I had to roll it to fit inside.
The last moving boxes
Are empty.
Seven weeks later
I’ve finally finished
The awful chore
Of packing, unpacking,
Putting away, and
Throwing away.
And I must say
The stuff in
My new apartment
Doesn’t look too bad.
Sure the shelves
Are a little crowded
With things I
Couldn’t part with,
But what the hell.
I look at
The Waterford crystal
Bright and shining
In my china closet
And think,
Ben will have
A great time
Getting rid of
All that someday.
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