My apology and excuse for my relative absence this summer

Paint Plaster and Pandemonium

The relentless rush of renovation
Of my house has crushed my innovation
Grinding my mind to that of a zombie
Or drudge beyond the nudge of poetry

As all summer long my back has been bent
By soulsucking chores which never relent
I finish one and then another one
Or two or three or four must be begun
The past still holding a grudge against me

Miraculously I finished a book
But have scarcely seen time to sneak a look
Or even begin to savor what I
Am adequate at and what I live by

Harnessed to trudge to inadequacy
Instead I have to paint high ceilings blue
Or porch floors green or whatever I do
All a blur and bore I would do no more
Than write poems and seek a little peace

My employee believes he employs me
As he lectures me on the ebb and flow
Of pipes and the truth of the two-by-four
Sore-trying my passive diplomacy

Exhausted heatstricken now stricken dumb
I look forward to locking my front door
On paint plaster and pandemonium
When autumn falls and sacrifices cease
And renovated rise again to soar

+Steven Curtis Lance



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