Desktop

This desktop, an uncle and aunt’s
gift to a graduating high school senior,
class of 1970.

Below, its drawers crammed with
adjectives and adverbs, nouns and verbs,
alphabetical and illustrated.

Portable and light enough
to rest on one knee, it has remained
a trusted writing surface.

Desiccating glued joints, fragile
and falling apart, no longer ensure
structural viability.

But despite its unhinged covers,
Webster’s New World Dictionary still
supports my vocabulary.