Dust Bunnies

Haul the monster up the stairs

Clank, vroom, clank, vroom, clank, clank, clank

Canadian nickel behind the sofa

Chankles up the vacuum hose

Damned if I’ll debride

It or the rubber bands caught in the Vesicles of Detritus,

Which wouldn’t be stuck there in the first place

If a certain someone, I won’t say who, didn’t carelessly leave

Rubber bands on the floor

But actually took the time to bend down and

Pick them up when they fall, your precious royal highness.

***

And Dad–what the heck are you doing

Squashed under the davenport with your glasses half off

When you’re supposed to be dead, not like

Elvis, hiding out with a stash of

Fried peanut-butter-and-banana-on-toast sandwiches.

We already said goodbye when they stopped

The dobutamine and they full-throttled the morphine as you

Wished us well

Take care of each other,

It’s been great, you said

Then closed your tired eyes,

Eking out a final joke: “Don’t expect me home for dinner”

The silence expanded like a circus balloon waiting to explode

An unexpected vaudeville ending.

***

And now I have to put the sofa back

Lousy rubber bands.

Ah, death, it’s like a chicken’s neck

When they snap it

That’s it.