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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PARLOR FURNITURE by GLENN WARD DRESBACH

First Line: SHE KEPT THE BLINDS DOWN SO IT WOULD NOT FADE
Last Line: THE MOTHS OF LONELINESS HAD NIBBLED THROUGH!
Subject(s): FURNITURE;

She kept the blinds down so it would not fade --
Her parlor furniture that just a few
Old neighbors saw on cleaning days displayed,
And when she died it was as good as new...
Except in spots the moths had nibbled out
The rosebud pattern, and the springs had tried
For years to push the bottoms down -- without
A weight to help their tightness coiled inside.

No dents of swinging heels were on the hard
Bright finish of the wood; no rainy day
Had made that couch a ship; no chair was scarred
Where tops had spun their rainbow paint away...
What patterns of her dreams, if we but knew,
The moths of loneliness had nibbled through!



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