
For Those Whose Middle is Messy
Our bookends are the best.
Those parts of our lives that
Hold up the middle muck.
It is the bookends,
Childhood and old age
That give us true support and
That tidy up our lives.
The middle is messy with
Jobs and gobs and kids and gluck.
The middle is doing and digging;
It is climbing and clinging.
But ah, the bookends—
Where we haven’t yet learned
Or no longer want to care.
The bookends that keep us tight
And help us stand up straight,
Two end pieces that
Put our souls in structure.
Oh, those strong and sturdy panels,
Those weighted, solid walls,
Sometimes pretty, sometimes plain
Always
Holding us together
Just the same.
Susan Patterson
Copyright 2-2011