Souvenir
By Jane Hirshfield
I would like
to take something with me
but even one chair
is too awkward
too heavy
peeling paint
falls off in a suitcase
hinge sounds betray a theft
cheeses won’t keep
the clothespin
without its surroundings
would be mediocre
the big thunder rolled elsewhere
the umbrella is for sale
but in a desert what you want is a soaking
the do not disturb sign is tattered
I have many times taken
some cafe’s small packets of sugar
so that in Turkey
I might sweeten my coffee with China,
and in Italy remember a Lithuanian pastry
but where is the coffee
hands left and right useless
knees clattery
heart finally calm
as some hero at the end of a movie
squinting silently into the sun
you can’t hold an umbrella there anyhow
and what would he hang from the clothespin
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I spent all day Thursday going through boxes I haven't opened in 20 years or more, and found awesome and hilarious treasures -- Star Wars art from fifth grade, Star Trek souvenirs from the 90s, a big collection of brand new TV-based comics in poly bags -- plus a whole bunch of movie specials and stuff I have to figure out whether to put on eBay, give away, or recycle. And it was a nice day to walk.
So that was fun, plus we watched the last episode of the third season of For All Mankind, which was wonderful and upsetting and too many people died and there's another I want to kill and how am I supposed to wait for season four! I had chat in the evening but we had time for She-Hulk, which was also awesome though in the hilarious clever tightly-written way. Some pics of Pepper at the beach:
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