THE THROWER AND THE KEEPER

It’s best when casual—a quick

“I love you” while the coffee cools

or when we pass each other

in the hall.

Skywriting lovers

who proclaim “I love you”

to the world mistake publicity

for praise.

Better the ways

of Cyrano who saved his praises

for Roxanne alone.

No Cyrano,

I do my best to thank you

for your bravery of heart, your sense

of who’d be hurt by what

is said or left unsaid, your rage

when something totally unjust

is totally ignored.

On basics

we agree.

On trivia, not always.

I claim the Iroquois were right—

“Travel light, travel far.”

You say

the things we chuck today

we just might need tomorrow.

So there we are—the chucker

and the saver—now against

mañana.

On trips you pack

for three eventualities—delay,

disaster and death.

I pack

the clothes I plan to leave

behind, the socks I’ll never

wear again, the books

I bring to give away…

To be exact,

you’re two-thirds right.

When I

need dimes for tolls or parking

meters, presto! you produce

them from the pocket of your coat.

If I need dollars, presto! out

they pop like Kleenex from the selfsame

coat.

And that trick works

with any coat.

You keep

a history of birthdays, wedding

dates and anniversaries, and twice

that saved us from the worst

of all embarrassments.

You store

for years the sales receipts

I’d throw away, and once

that spared us a calamity.

I doubt

we’ll change.

What leaves me edgy

makes you more assured, so why

adjust?

I’ll keep on lightening

our overload of blankets, towels,

issues of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC,

Christmas ribbons, drinking

glasses from a dozen different

sets, galoshes, photographs

and stubs, discarding, I concede,

some quality in all that quantity.

You’ll go on saving snapshots,

rubber bands, old programs

from Toronto and New York,

cancelled stamps from Italy

and Belgium, shillings, francs,

a ring too tarnished to be worn,

doorkeys for God-knows-which

hotels, outdated medicines

and, finally, I gratefully admit,

some quality in all that quantity,

including, in the process, me.

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