the dusty acoustic guitar sits on the stand crooked
by the wilted potted plant
not watered for three months
by a repaired rocking chair salvaged from the garbage
not rocked in over a year

above the red brick fireplace hangs
a signed alvar lithograph
fished from the trash bin - 16 of 275
of a man with a floppy hat playing a guitar next to
the profile of an orange haired woman
eye-catching framing the room

on the fireplace hearth leans a 110-year old
unloaded 22 caliber winchester also rescued
from a residential cleanup dumpster

next to a face-carved african walking stick dangling
a safari hat hung by the shoe lace chin tie
embroidered with words - pole pole kenya

left a masai three legged stool carved from
a single log inlaid with red green and yellow beads in the shape
of a rhino

the fireplace oak mantle under the alvar has two bronze
standing heron - straight up, bending down to drink

the corner tubular shelf a copy of leaves of grass
by walt whitman and a king james bible from 1856

the framed lithograph floppy-hatted man nags
to dust off the guitar 









2.4 10/10