Order this writing in the collection book we the Poets available for only $1395 |
|
Order this writing in the collection book Revealing All Your Dirty Little Secrets available for only $1995 |
|
This appears in a pre-2010 issue
|
||
|
TO OLGA
Nathaniel S. Rounds
This is a Waltham gold fob watch,
heirloom from your paternal grandmother, pawned
innumerable times by her contemptible husband
to compensate for income lost
to three-day drunks. It bears, inside,
this inscription:
To Olga, Oct 12, 1916,
as well as several rows of rudely etched numbers,
one scrawl for each time it was pawned.
Incompetents from subsequent generations
pawned it, then reclaimed it--
a talisman for inherited failings.