Under wings of goldfinch and red-winged blackbird,
I gaze to the warm face of the blue and press my
toes down into the black blanket below
as Eddie and I wrench dandelions out
of the damp dirt and stow them in brown paper bags.
Better I think to eat the fragrant blossoms
than the bitter leaves he hunts each spring
but it’s part of him now and me as well
by way of these odd outings, a heritage
I never understood, colors well beyond
my spectrum, strange family ways,
I knew even then would not, at my hand,
find their way into the next generation.
Cheap
Heat
On cold winter days Mr. Frugal liked to look
out and watch the snow caught up in eddies of white air
swirling between the kitchen windows and
the roof next door. What he didn't like to see
swirling between the window and the roof next door
was steam from his clothes dryer wafting
up from the vent in the basement.
It bothered him that perfectly good warmth
was just floating off into outer space.
Paying to heat air and then throwing it away
was enough to make his blood run cold.
So what if it had just dried the clothes,
to him it was going to waste.
Fortunately, mechanical whiz that he was,
he was able to do something about it.
In the duct from the squeaky cloths dryer
he put a gadget about the size of a toaster
to divert its exhaust to the inside.
One branch of the T-shaped device went through
the wall, one connected below to the dryer,
and the other stuck out into the room
like the barrel of a cannon. On the end
of the cannon was a coffee can he punched holes in
and stuffed with filter material from an air conditioner.
With a half twist, he’d block the escape route,
then listen to the warm air wheeze through the filter
and smile as before his wishful eyes
the air filled with dancing dollar signs
like fine downy fuzz from a fluffy comforter.
As the hot air recycling effort caught on,
dryer operations not normally in his purview,
took on new meaning and he got a lot of exercise
running up and down the steps but it was not
without its drawbacks. After a lot of washing
and drying, moisture condensed on the cold water pipes,
dripped down onto the white appliances,
left long wet rows of puddles on the floor,
dampened rugs and shelves along the wall
and made the place smell like mildew for weeks
on end. But no matter,
it was a small price to pay for cheap heat.
