Dried prom flowers, worn photographs,
Ticket fragments, echoed laughs
Crumpled scripts, paper slips
Fragmented leaves, snail shells
Belled mirrors with tinsel stars,
Tufts of alley cat fur.

Antimacassars, all, opposed to making space,
Thwarting, efficiently, existent
Computer communications,
Unflinching deterring drunk chip activity
By dint of forgotten pasttimes’
Brittle hurt of subversive words,

Such unavoidable contexts terminate
Talk; they might even rhetorically stymie
Whimsy’s wayward, positive social function
Impoverishing, en route,

Core dilemmas’ resolute sister,
Whose many small virtues easily collapse.

Recollections weigh in as gold
When society’s dirty work remains
Incomplete, supped together
With open source publishing,
Demoralized conversations,
Gap years, and lost dreams.