A Drab Existence

dedicated to the compressors,
brevitizers and stripper-downers
of the literary world

The Drab pursues economy.
A carpenter, his goal
is shoring up by stripping down,
replacing board with hole.

He builds his house this way — with gaps,
voids, missing beams galore.
And though the roof begins to sag,
he argues, "Less is more."

When slow dark storm clouds loom, he drags
a tarp across each crack.
I ask him, "Why first trim a hedge,
then glue the cuttings back?"

His ears admit no paradox;
his tongue belies all doubt:
"Our strength comes not from what we have,
but what we do without."

© Fred Longworth