Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Mattress RIP




Today is the day the new mattress is to be delivered.
Somehow that makes me sad. And pensive.
What object inanimate is there that is so intimate?
I wonder and I cannot summon any other.
For all my life, there’s been a mattress for all my nights.
This will be Number Six, counting only those long-term.
What else has shared my tossing and turnings?
What else has absorbed fluids in such variety?
What else has tolerated the passion and love-making?
What else has always so easily forgiven and forgotten?

This new mattress will be different.
A graduation from Queen to King,
A softer, gentler one,
To respect old bones and sore muscles.
And what of my bed mate?
Will this mattress camouflage as well
All his yelps and groans and utterances from dreams
Good and Bad?
What of my sneezes and restless legs?
Will the King’s extra inches calm them
Or at least distance them?

This Number Six has its pedigree to establish
And an impressive record to maintain.
I wish it well.
As I mourn the one it replaces,
The one carried away by the movers
For an extra fourteen dollars,
A trifle for all of its service,
I dare not ask where it will go,
How it will end.
I give it my gratitude and whisper an
RIP.

No comments: