Spring Cleaning

 

Neil Harding McAlister

 

 

Spring cleaning time! Emerged from winter’s slump

We’ve trucked a load of refuse to the dump --

Old things once valued, bought with hard-earned cash,

Mementos of our lives, devolved to trash.

 

The treasures tykes unwrapped one Christmas morn

With shrieks of glee, are disused and forlorn.

Bent rackets, a deflated basketball,

A battered box of battered Barbie dolls,

 

A chipped, old conch shell from some tropic isle,

A beat-up, floral couch long out of style,

A bicycle, a lamp, a plastic Jeep,

Lie broken and discarded in a heap.

 

Once prized possessions, now computer junk,          

Land in the trash pile with a sullen thunk.

There goes that printer – and if truth’s to tell,     

The darned thing never did work very well.         

 

A bust of Elvis with a busted nose

Begs, “Don’t be cruel!” -- but to the landfill goes.

A fond reminder of their childhood past,

Our kids’ old booster seat gets chucked out last.

 

A hunk of scrap is much more than it seems.

Here in the bone-yard of our worn-out dreams

The crunch of boots on shards of broken glass

Reminds us that, tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse.

 

© 2006, NHMcA