An Apparently Respectable Man's Conversation with an Insurance Appraiser
And His Deconstruction of How It All Went Wrong
On the right of this desk
Tucked back against the wall
Is a votive candle
Set atop a birch round.
For its size and its weight
The wooden cylinder
On which the candle rests
Serves well as a book-end.
To the left of the round
Stand thirty-three paper-backs
And one leather-bound book
Commissioned by King James.
Centered on this desk-top
Is a Mercator chart
Now decades obsolete
And quite profoundly flawed.
East Jerusalem sits
Outside of Israel;
The Soviet Union
Remains wholly intact.
On this desk's other end
An old chemistry stand
With a round flask on top
Keeps the books from falling.
Among all the volumes
Is just one hard-bound text
Which concerns itself
With Galapagos fauna.
This book rests up against
The old chemistry stand's
Vertical element
And its pages are worn.
I should speak in past-tense;
That book is all but ash,
As are all the others.
It's quite unfortunate.
Here's what I think happened:
After thumbing around
Some philosophy book
I re-shelved it poorly.
Apparently it tipped
While I took a phone call
In the room down the hall
And proceeded to fall.
The votive -- having burned
Much of its wax by now --
Weighed far less than before
So the book-end did, too.
Because the map's surface
Was slick the birch round slid
Some distance and allowed
Those thirty books to fall.
The Bible tipped to the flame,
Its delicate pages
Acting, in an instant,
As shepherds to the blaze.
Because the books had toppled
Much like dominoes do,
Each conveyed the fire
Quite quickly to the next.
In very little time
(While I was still away)
The collection -- in its
Entirety -- turned dust.
By the time I arrived
All that remained aflame
Was the Mercator chart;
I just let it burn out.
I'll need some new sheet-rock
And a gallon of paint.
I think I can just scrub
the soot from the ceiling.
Concerning all the books:
I've already read them;
It was high time I got
Rid of some of that shit.
The real tragedy
Is that old vintage map --
Limited edition --
It was one of a kind.