the mailbox

by eric marin

jebediah hall loved
to receive his mail
more than anything
else in his waning life

although his small family
was long gone from the world
and his friends had passed too
he still waited for his mail

he would stand impatiently
by his battered mailbox
from the first hint of dawn
until the mail carrier
arrived and deposited
the day's bills and ads

he would collect his mail
and carry it into his house
to sort and read through it
before setting it atop the
leaning piles that climbed
toward his kitchen ceiling

jebediah spent so much
of his time waiting for
his mail to be delivered
that he left no time to eat
no time to care for his body
no time for anything but mail

his body weakened over time
until he could no longer
pull himself from his bed
and still he pined for his mail

even as his life ebbed away
his consuming desire for mail
grew only stronger until the
very bonds of matter burned away

the coroner listed jebediah's
death as an accident that began
when mounds of mail combusted
spontaneously in his bedroom

firemen had found only his ashes
among the smoking and charred
timbers and slagged brick
once jebediah's lonely home

but out on the curb stood
a shiny new mailbox
unmarked and unremarked
waiting for the mail to arrive