20150727 (house clearing)

Not an unusual sight in the suburbs. Cars parked outside all year.

The house should feel a lot lighter

Now that so much has been removed

I won’t go into the facts

Somebody left me a lot of their stuff 

After three and a half years 

Has finally gotten all of it out 

Which is not true they admitted having 

No more space what’s left here is yours 

To do what you will grateful

The end had been reached still a task

To haul out the rest I gave a breadbox

Of brand new but old unopened tubes 

Of acrylic paints to an art student wandering

Near the Cleveland Institute of Art

Glasses to the Society for the Blind

Art tracing papers cardboards gessoed 

For work stretchers to Art House

On Denison office goods vases

To Unique Thrift on Lorain 

There’s still much to discard I can’t 

Throw expensive paraphernalia 

In the trash when somebody clever 

Can use them if they want to buy

Wedding party novelties at a penny a piece

Took surplus greeting cards all very

Lovely to the church to send to the home bound

I asked at the Flea if anybody wanted 

The fabrics not at all dusty or ruined

Got some leads years ago 

When my sibs and I were garage-saleing 

My mom’s personal effects

We called an auction service who 

Have recyclers remove the unsold

Dispirited they looked at the stash 

Announced they needed to clear two hundred bucks 

For themselves old gold Royal Doulton 

Antiques we had none a service for the rich

Not a family struggling to cross 

To the other side of the median 

For middle class after we’d set out 

Everything anyone might give money for 

An old gent stayed all day 

Looking through the barrels we’d set 

At the curb for rubbish collection

He asked if we minded he took things

Help yourself just see it all gets 

Back in the barrels when you’re done

Another variety of the illness why

People buy this crap in the first place

His joy is that it was free 

When I did route exams for the post office

Time-studies of the mailman’s day

I followed the carrier on his rounds

In the suburbs it was nothing to find

Two cars parked on a driveway and

The garage clearly packed with 

What I’ll graciously call acquisitions 

Some neatly sorted most heaped 

Opinion holds the population obese

Because food is less costly

Course there’s also the unadmitted

Conspiracy of food suppliers to cram us

With lethal volumes of salt sugar fat

It’s the nature of capitalism to grow expand

Profit whether it’s in things food drugs travel movies

Satisfied with your old car you can’t be

Not if you’ve seen the new Oldsmobile

Watch out though if you drive the wrong streets

You’ll come square up against folks

Who haven’t got squat find a reason

To blame them for not being like you

Struggling to get to a better place

You’ve got a job they’re lazy

Is what everybody says 

Just look at their raggy old clothes 

You wouldn’t let your kids on the street

Looking like that 

Still even they produce garbage 

God how bad must it be

If they throw it away

c. J.S.Manista, 2015