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Embrace the patron of collectivity
find patterns in the documented history of action
and observation
Keep the ticket stub that recollects that first Dead show
and the second and the seventeenth and the last before
Jerry died because they are important props that remind us that
Once we were young and careless
Immortal.
these artifacts of youth: old t-shirt and jeans that recall
a slenderer figure, painted rocks and candle stubs from a camping
trip that immersed us in both natural and supernatural wading pools,
a broken key ring, an old collection of Red Dog, Snapple, and
Elliot’s Amazing bottle caps with cryptic messaginial trivia, and a red envelope
stuffed with Chinese cookie fortunes create a cardboard altar to times that might
be better off forgotten
in the arthritic pain of monotonous bill paying
Responsibility to creditors and the roof
over our heads drives us to forget that weekends once lasted forever
We knew the moment would never fail
Because we threw its momentos into a box
and closed the lid on it
tell the children, would you?
Turn out the lights when I leave.
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