Every day with the rug

First in Brooklyn

now in Lake Worth

She takes up the doormat

from her second floor

one bedroom condo

widowed and retired longer

than she was married or worked

she beats it on the railing

so the dirt falls to the hedge below

 

every day with the rug

it’s her reason for getting up

in the morning

to make sure nothing

comes in her house

from her dirty rug.

 

The neighbor below

tried to complain

eventually gave up

sold her condo

and moved away.