Simple, Simple Things

Simple, Simple Things

she talked about
playing with her dogs
she talked about
playing with her cat
she talked about
all their 
mischiefs

she talked about
her feet
and washing the windows
and watering her plants
and changing
the soil
in all
the pots

she talked
with great amusement
about her soap operas
and the game show channel
she watched

she talked
about her amazing
new
countertop
kitchen 
appliance

she ended it
as she always did,
"it's the simple things
that get me by."

i'd heard it
all before
so many times
i wanted to say, 
"no. i don't think they're 
getting you by."

but instead
i said,
"it isn't philip glass."
imagining it
being kinder

i considered
adding
mondrian or rothko
but that seemed
too pedantic
and way too close
to being gross

she asked,
"whose philip glass?"

i told her
a guy
who makes songs
songs
in their way
simple
yet sublime

months later
she was telling me
about her feet
her dogs
her cat
and wink martindale
when i reminded her
of philip glass

"who's philip glass?" she asked.

"you don't remember last time
when i mentioned philip glass?"

"maybe i forgot," she said. "been 
awfully busy
entertaining the dogs and cat."

i said maybe
sometime
she could look into
philip glass

she said, "maybe. but i got
a lot of windows to clean, 
plants to water, and their soil
to change." 

when simple things
define a person
very
very simple things
sometimes
those things
and the person
they create
are just
too simple
for even
the most
tolerant
and
sympathetic

but
there's still time
for her
to be more
than the simple 
simple things
that have always
defined her

there's still time
but 
like all the decades before
there's still 
windows to clean
dogs to feed
a new gadget to buy
and lots of plants
that need watering