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Moving Day

Moving Day
It's Easter
and today we moved
boxes and furniture
in a truck and a jeep
eight blocks away
and unloaded and unpacked
and reshelved and then
took the boxes back
and forth
three times and
we're still not done.

And at the same time
the bells of Easter
tolled in the church a block away
and the tiny purple flowers
ventured their way
out of the mud
in our new,
trampled down lawn.

And so we move from
one house to another
even though my wife
is not really sure
which she likes best
or if the new kitchen
is really better.

And at the same time
sixty miles away
lying in a pastel
room in Iowa City
you make your move
from here to there
carry no baggage with you
leave much behind
that wasn't needed
and we can be sure
that the move you made today
is better, milder
and filled with light.

-pjs

for David Thoren, 1952 - 2002

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