Doing some editing work at the Mountlake Terrace library. Partly inspired by a poem by S. R. Mason… 

On this day when a lot of things
don’t seem to count
I went down the list
and counted

You have left
eighty-eight pieces of yourself behind
so far
that I have picked up
and collected in one place

To keep them near me?
To keep them warm?

Or maybe to remind me
that there are other ways
to say what I feel
and that I am not always the best judge
of these things
that when backs turn
it is not necessarily me
but the words I (fail to) use

If the earth is flat this day
I may not have screwed the cap on
tightly enough
so the carbonation escaped
without my noticing

Sadly, that is not enough
to solve global warming

I will have to look
for more poems
to add to my collection

(24 March 2018)