Saul Bennett
Listen Carefully
I never listened carefully. Somehow I could
not. This seemed my nature
or fate. So I taught my expression to paint
earnest attention and thus brushed the top
of my field with compensation in a year
topping my father's lifetime pot
in our best years. As these yielded
slowly then swiftly to the ordinary then less
slowly then swiftly it appeared to colleagues
my paint ran. Others stood in for me
at times then almost always. I still hold
my title but important assignments
elude me. My staff is gone.
When you visit my immense office with
private bathroom I try to remember
to paint. I make my day go.
For my next birthday I have asked
our grown living children to bring
a workbook with pictures
they use in the second grade to teach
cursive script. I mean to start over.