There are things to be dealt with
but later

There are lances to forge
and checkbooks to balance
and mornings to break
and portholes to grease
and tides to release
and airships to ballast

There are shoes to resole
and souls to rest easy
and easy days thrown
at the feet of the weary

There are rings for engraving
and graves for repenting
and pent-up emotions

There are bottles of asp'rin
and pieces of marble
and delicate thimbles
and spoonfuls of sugar
and buckets of icewater

There are pores to be scrubbed
and scrubs to be bleached -
baskets of peaches
baskets of string
baskets of lobsters and other things

All to be filed and frozen and castrated
all to be sorted and dusted and bent
to be woven and crumpled and locked in a cupboard
in time