Saving Things

Saving things

            Bottles and jars

            Baskets and bins

Waste not want not

I hear the Protestant work ethic

            In the ghostly voices of Catholic grandparents

Sounds almost like a Chinese ideogram

            But they do not save things

Palaces are purged there, the bricks used 

to build houses for a bourgeoning population

Slowed somewhat by the One Child Policy

Here we cannot admit

            The urge to procreate

            Can be destructive – go forth and multiply

or so the Bible Thumpers say

Ghosts of grandparents admonish me with another cliche

Idle hands are the Devil’s playground

            So mine are busy all the time

Wiping and washing and rinsing

            Sewing on buttons and taking up hems

Cutting up rags for makeup removers

Because the store bought ones sting

Placing them gently into 

Bottles and jars

            Baskets and bins