Horsehairs and Headlines

Saint Paul, 9 September 2004

Our father's grip

The worn leather suitcase

Steerage of stranded slumlords

Contents absent from inventory

Wrought by ginkgo leaves

Shed by October frost

Our father's effects

The Tums and Pepsodent

Which, along with slumping horsehairs

Insulates wood frame houses like

Black Thursday's headlines stuffed

Thirteen inches on center