farewell [1.19.2025]

farewell Oinky and Muttkey 
the latter resting under 
his tiny crocheted blanket
that once belonged to two dolls
who slept in their blue wooden bed
that you built and painted for me

but Barbie and Ken 
had to get married first, you said
so the chihuahua officiant 
borrowed Daddy’s yarmulke 
and offered the right things

good-bye Hmmphrey and Peppa
Edward and Dora
all the games and toys
the clothes and books
marionettes and puppets
two young ventriloquists’ Danny O’Day

in the trash, no one can look for
the hanukiot, the shabbos candlesticks
that ceramic man 
fishing for who-knows-what
so many big knitted blankets 
and handmade ponchos

the piano my aunt was gifted 
for her 12th birthday
and its decades of music 
will be gone
except what’s in my head

for now the piano is alone
in the empty house

five nice men saved 
some of the Polaroids,
art, photographs
the neighbor and his wife are holding 
a sequence of you framed 
a baby smiling in the middle 
in your mother’s arms

no one will wind up your Mickey Mouse 
and Howdy Doody watches
or hold the Madame Alexander and Little Ricky 
or any of the other dolls

in my mind
the barrister and its skeleton key
the rocker, the lamps
almost every single tchotchke 

the rest of the furniture
the silverware, the dishes
the poetry, the cooking pots

your neighbors rescued 
the front door mezuzah

maybe someone will find 
your two wedding bands
the first from my father
the second from the man 
who departed in another kind of chaos
leaving this mess including
his dusty tallis bag 
the tefillin in tangles

Calvin the Calorie Pear watches
as I look through the brass, mirrored porthole 
opening to nothing