I was almost at peace with it
our sudden squalor
the trail of laundry
the piles on the stairs
the thermos I was afraid to open
I didn’t realize
how close the chaos lived
under our thin and tidy life
and for a moment it felt liberating
to be conquered
by this anarchy of stuff
to survey it calmly
surrendered to the entropy
a rebellion against my own shame
and then just as quickly
I couldn’t bear it
that I couldn’t find my slippers
or a single pen
and there was spit-up on my keyboard
my husband listened as I cursed our small house
and our rumpled life
while he folded the laundry
whistling and bouncing
like the scene from Oliver
that he and our son have memorized
but it wasn’t until he found my slippers
under the bed
and presented them to me
with a deep bow
that my heart loosened up enough
to laugh.