Clean Glasses

Clean Glasses

She took off her glasses,
held them up to the light.
They hadn’t been cleaned
in a while.

She licked both sides 
of the lenses.
She does this 
without thinking.

This was how they cleaned
glasses in the old days.
Before it became gauche,
a faux pas in polite society.

She used her slip 
to wipe them dry.
She put them back on,
sliding them up to the red 
spot at the top 
of her nose.

She’s now ready to read.
Yesterday it was her bible, 
tomorrow, well it will be 
her clippings from the paper.

But today 
it’s a letter from the kids.
It’s was those letters
that required clean glasses.

A paper chain that connected
her emptiness back 
to her heart.

Pages of joys and heartaches.
Allowing her to share,
permitting her to grieve.

It was the glasses,
her precious glasses
that kept her connected.

Years passed,
the kids letters 
slowed over time,
as those things will do.

The ritual of cleaning 
her glasses faded too.

The reason to keep
them clean 
didn’t seem all that important.
She still reads her bible,
her clippings too.

She still hopes that one day, 
there will be a need.
To take them off,
hold them up to the light,
do the impolite thing
and clean her glasses.

10/28/16
Copyright © | Year Posted 2018

Poem

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