Monday, July 15, 2024

Discarded, Poetic Asides

 Waste Not, Want Not

 

My mother-in-law lived into her eighties,

primarily by walking sixteen blocks each day.

From the depression era,

she never threw anything usable away.

 

Walking by the neighborhood dumpsters,

she’d spy perfectly good items, shamefully wasted.

She began the habit of taking along a plastic bag,

dumpster diving, as her sons called it.

 

With her stocking cap, old clothes and bag,

she looked like a homeless person.

In reality, she had a nice home and savings.

She’d stash her treasures in the basement.

 

After she passed, her boys hauled off truckloads

to the dump, truly and finally, trashing them.

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