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Preparations For A Michigan Winter

A man cleaned the gutters last week his truck

ticking in the driveway with a number

to call emblazoned on the doors above 

a website I didn’t visit below

and a little bit forward of ladders

I didn’t climb that bridged a bed I paid

one hundred and forty-seven dollars

to ignore all those nested five gallon

buckets nestled in blue tarps and leaf rakes

with missing tines and a Husqvarna

gasoline leaf blower capable of

generating wind in excess of two

hundred and fifty one miles per hour 

I barely heard over The Bill Evans

Trio from The Complete Village Vanguard

Recordings, 1961.  Somewhere

between “Waltz For Debby” and “Gloria’s

Step” I replaced the old furnace filter.