Discard After Use

Word Count: 178
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"Discard After Use"

Brown paper like a tree’s limbs
Wrinkled indents, a gramma’s head
Shop-Rite delivery, right on time
A morsel of bag steered clear from the grind.
Frustrated, discarded, it meets its end

The day is ending for the paige
A never-ending valley filled in at the gaps.
The funeral parlor drapes the casket
and newspapers are tucked inside with the maps
Rotten apples now fill the basket

The morose mop drips on the floor
And the creases of the paper recede like her veins
Knock knock knockin’ on heaven’s door
Mother nature spews her age
Corn and eggs directed to vainly stimulate life

She wondered whether some deserve a second chance,
after all this was a mountain of paper
a temporary window lining while painting a kitchen
or textbook cover so gently tapered.
Retired deli clerk had never quit his bitchin

And in the end things rattle on
Another forest chopped down like its previous kin
Her gut had ached longing for nutrition
That dilapidated sack thrown out in the bin
Perhaps life will spring once more into fruition