decades the dawdler, small d dilettante,
big a amateur, master of half a dozen useful/tasty things,
and an even-tempered brooder, to boot!
upon attaining seventy years, the chore is to unpack
cabinets and closets and to scan or riffle scores and scores
of notebooks, lest something worthwhile be lost.
the gift of seventy is enough humility to invoke alchemy,
which can hie the compression of these leaves beyond
the ink black stage straight to the bright and shiny.
by Dave Conlin Read