1. Sip from a simple white mug filled with steaming dark coffee after washing in a clean white bathroom contemplating slight shade differences in white porcelain of toilet, sink, and cast iron claw foot tub with a rust stain around the drain growing larger every morning.


2. Thirsty white towels caress and embrace me after too many restless nights sleeping in winter or spring on soft white sheets so easily smoothed the next day and made shipshape though once billowed on a white rope clothesline, later smelling of sunshine and wind.


3. Wearing white shirt, white pants, white socks with his name in laundry pen disappearing, white sneakers for a day of cleaning wicker furniture with bleach before repainting white for front porch summer nights underneath twinkling white lights, like stars in the darker times.


4. Sometimes finding white spots on dark clothes from using bleach on a weekend whim to clean two white concrete birdbaths, leaving a few drops to discourage mosquitoes, things could be worse and have been, on this wheel of fortune, this dizzying crazy carnival ride.


5. The white of my sky can be seen through white lace curtains, to the north the mountains and upstairs, to the south the tops of red maple, weeping cherry, and storm tangled trumpet vine promising hummingbirds soon.


6. Lying on my back, watching spiders that are not white strolling across their boulevard, my white ceiling, thin webs, mass murder and spider mayhem on their tiny spider minds until I stand unsteadily on a pale blue chair with a white tissue that squishes or misses.


7. If I lie down on this splintered kitchen floor any time during the afternoon or evening as tea kettle boils or oven bakes, all the white appliances will gladly show off the grease and grime I've not noticed for thirty years that now scream for cleaning.


8. In a white cupboard, white paper plates, white paper towels and white paper napkins unadorned and unwaxed, once used for birthday parties, picnics or camping contribute far less residue to the landfill after a short stay in this home for the mildly bewildered.


9. White paper, whether loose or lined, aged, matte, glossy bright, bound or free, beckons for words or sketches, patiently waiting for years in boxes, cabinets or drawers, on dusty shelves for pencil, pen or lithograph looking for hands that have been busy elsewhere.


10. One of the obvious problems with white is that it is not alizarin crimson nor tan, taupe, beige or that special shade of aubergine, adamantly brown to his color blind eyes, the things you learn long after the honeymoon haze of highs and lows.


11. A problem of a different nature occurs once you have held someone's ashes in your bare hands, you will never forget the seventy six shades of white he was reduced to in the end or how you accidentally spilled the last white salt of him into cracks between floorboards.


12. White seems to be chosen as the color of death but also for the joy of birth, be it caskets or cradles, candles lit in remembrance or celebration for there have always been countless white flags of surrender, universally heeded except when cruelly ignored.


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