Even a dim rainbow
couldn't fit into
the box labeled,
UNDECIDED, in black Magic Marker
by the side of the marital bed.


Stacks of important papers
lay scattered
on a red Persian rug
next to a picnic basket,
painted by a critical daughter,
a distorted angel, flying nude.


Photographs of several lifetimes,
in and out of photo albums,
faded Kodachrome,
sharp black and white,
my mother and dead father dancing
at their wedding,
looking so young and elegant.


On the other side
of the marital bed, a lamp,
a box of tissues, a night light,
a flashlight, a daily note
that reads WORK TODAY
or NO WORK TODAY- SLEEP


A matching red Persian rug
holds his winter slippers,
as he sleeps under winter blankets,
a few fallen teddy bears,
a small white-starred red blanket,
a bedside table once broken in anger
now covered in several years
of forgiving dust.

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