I still haven’t bought gloves,
though I had steel-toe boots for awhile.
Callouses are waiting for you to lay hands bare
to everything you own. You can go years without feeling
the bottom of your own table.
I moved Dad into his new house.
This brings the total to 18 moves in 10
years. Mostly in 20 hour windows.
You were around
for 7 or 8 of them
I read once that most of dust is actually stardust
from micro-meteorites. It’s not true.
It is actually dead pieces of you.
I’ve inhaled more of us than anyone.
Item highlights:
250 lb. End table with hidden safe inside
Combination: unknown
Garbage bag with mom’s clothes
and one Phillips-head screwdiver
Four landline phones tangled
with their cords in a laundry hamper
Seven phonebooks in a neat cardboard box
Madalyn: Dad still has the small wooden sign you made him
the one that says “Dad’s Workshop” in blue glitter-paint.
Steve: Dad has recently bought a toaster oven, and he loves it
as much as you love yours. He gave me the same speech
about the difference in the taste of hot-dogs.
You are both still in the pictures at his house. It startles
me when your faces appear on the screensaver.