carried all my stuff down from the attic
and cut it up into two piles.
I threw into the bathtub and burned.
The things that made me smile,
set them up in rows around my bed
so I could see them all together,
and then address each one in turn.
was my mom's dissertation.
She had it bound into a book for me
when I was only fourteen.
with four kids for that PhD.
I never read a page of it,
but I remember her crying
and my sisters were asleep.
to keep us far away from any weakness
Then I picked up Chris's diploma
And I remember how he asked me
not to attend the ceremony
when he walked up to get it
My heart screamed his name
I found the plaque Sarah made
when I first got pro moted
out about it before I did
And had it mounted on the office door
A hologram of our first family vacation
With the rain and the mos
And Sarah and I juggling two screaming kids,
I don't know how we smiled for the whole thing,
I smelled Zoey's baby clothes,
Leotards I wore on my head
when I was just four years old.
The first cartoon I drew,
Chris's first pair of shoes.
was a picture with no date.
I had so much hair though
that I must have been 27 or 28.
I must have been warming up for a show,
or may be just getting on stage.
I'm sitting on a leather couch,
I'm in the back room of some club.
and there's this beautiful girl
And I'm showing her my silk shirt
and I'm smiling and it's love
The hopeful look on that face
haven't seen that face since I
take it into the bathroom,
light it up and throw it in
I empty out the medicine cabinet
And my fingers look so new for a second
I quickly stole them away,
My boss says he'll live to be 140,
ex -boss, he's all into enhancers
and attachments and stuff
he wanted to be around that long,
Some people feel like the world wants them around,
that I don't want all that time
5.0
