Tonight's Poet Corner: Postman Blues

Postman Blues
by Belinda Roddie

Your cap hangs on a rack
in the cramped mini-corridor
leading to your living room
where your old burlap friend
lounges in front of the TV,
and the stamps you've collected
lie in suspended animation
behind glass. You've kept

every single last letter
from your loved ones,
resealed, and
wrapped in red ribbon
in each designated pile -
from mother, father, wife, daughter. But

even as you stop to wipe the sweat
from a wrinkled face,
waiting to let an iron mouth
embrace magazine tunnels of
tomfoolery, you can't help
opening the laptop that your daughter
got you for your birthday
and check the Christmas e-cards
that your brother sent you.

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