Edward Wallace Hoch
got it right:
THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD IN THE WORST OF US,
AND SO MUCH BAD IN THE BEST OF US,
THAT IT HARDLY BECOMES ANY OF US
TO TALK ABOUT
THE REST OF US
I have a strong belief that I’ve always been born to live in a Condo. . .
No shoveling snow
No cutting grass
No planting flowers
No mulching
No pruning trees
No cutting hedges
No raking leaves
No sweeping sidewalks
No watering
No outside painting
No gutter cleaning
No washing windows. . .
Well, maybe washing some windows, huh?
I suppose I could hire someone to clean the Condo
and do the windows
but would it be done perfectly?
I still remember one of the chores I had around my grandmother’s house when I lived with her during college was to kind of do all of those things, especially cleaning the windows. . .
Window Cleaning was done twice a year. . .
Definitely in the Spring
and usually that last nice day of Fall
(when I wanted to be watching Football instead)
I was given my paper towels
and a special formula that made Windex jealous. . .
After the Ladder was set up,
I ascended towards the Heavens
to make the view crystal clear. . .
And I made
T H A T
trip several times;
There were a lot of windows
and I most assuredly
had the impeccable gift of being able to
S T R E A K
magnificently every single one of them;
Alas,
it was the gift I was cursed to possess. . .
So,
though the job was required for me to complete bi-annually,
it would seem that it took me the months in between
to actually Accomplish–
Such was the keen,
ever JUDGING eye
of my grandmother. . .
I could never quite figure out how she,
with cataracts,
and often in need of glasses,
could spot a
S T R E A K
with her eyes closed;
I hated it then. . .
And owning a house now,
I detest it still–
though I rarely do the Windows
T H A T
often or under the not-so=harsh judgment
of Erin’s
Laser Vision Corrected Surgery. . .
W H E W
Funny though,
even with an ample dose of my Grandmother’s DNA,
I don’t have the window-cleaning gene
strongly inherent in me. . .
Funnier still,
I have a huge amount of
M A R Y
in me. . .
I always seem to have a not-so-poetic way of pointing out
WHAT’S WRONG WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S WASH
without much noticing
the dirt and streaks on my own Windows. . .
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm of the Day:
Maybe it’s not which window
I look out of at all
so much as which
M I R R O R
I’m actually standing. . .
Wait. . .
I think I see a Spot. . .
Y o u ?