In times like these
I clean the gutters monthly
and the lint trap every day;

buy a time-share in the
Ojai Public Library, invest my life
savings in the Ventura Arboretum;

and stockpile proverbs—
The ax forgets, but the tree remembers—
to arm myself for Tomorrow.

See how I worship potable water
and fresh-picked carrots!
Polish the bulbs of street-lamps!

Refuse a sweater and complain bitterly
of the cold! Speak without irony of
the times that try men’s souls!

I admit a cup of oatmeal is a blessing,
even, especially, at 4 AM, before
the swept-up dust has gone back to work,

before the keeper of the sky
has lost his key,
a wily sun still lying in wait;

and my goldfish, in its fishbowl,
is happier than me, in my bowl of flesh…
In times like these.