Odyssey of Waiting

Thoughts aflutter,

mind restless and feeling cooped up,

I settle on a jaunt down Sunset Lake Road

to loosen my knotted head.

I swing my arms to free the riddle

of wanting to organize the spaces and time

gone wild with meddlesome clutter.

The floor covered with sorted papers

and one too many unused printers,

gifts to be given at some unknown celebration,

wrapping paper left abandoned by my daughter

like a shipwreck of white and gold,

and the cards and letters never written

to a forgotten sweetheart or father and mother

passed away.

All these must go into files or to my son’s new apartment,

to the recycling or 2^nd hand stores to peddle unmercifully to others

so they might lounge on someone else’s shelves

an odyssey of waiting

only to stop the madness

of what could be

hoarding

everything sacred

if left to no devices. 

Move like a woman with purpose

to any pinnacle on this journey

but to the heap that will not be quenched

by shuffling to a new corner. 

My nervous memory

prompts me to pitch everything overboard

and start fresh as some new fiddle tune

at the summer Solstice contra dance.