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.