poetry

Ode to Betsy’s Linen (Valspar #7005-16)

Ode to Betsy’s Linen (Valspar #7005-16)

at Bates
I gained an appreciation for
off-white:
all the cream correspondence they sent
before I even arrived,
every dorm wall and pipe
painted this warmer
easier-to-be-in shade,
not blinding white but ivory

and now for years and years
we’ve dipped our brushes in
“Betsy’s Linen,”
her tentative cheeriness
papering over whatever other gestures there’ve been,
making the setting a little more calm
a little more circumspect
(not really changing the parameters of anything)
but smoothing order and a warm openness
onto difficult days

things are almost never black-and-white
but sometimes they’re neutral

poetry

not shopping

not shopping

almost a month
since I set foot in a store

probably the longest time in my life
except maybe college
(but I don’t think so –
College and Variety
Luigi’s and the Bookstore
Nothing but the Blues and Shaw’s
got a little of me here and there)

one month of gazing at the woods:
a terrible way to get better