The four Furbies have been packed and placed in color coordinated bins. 
No more yawns. “Cockle doodle doo! Me Toh-Loo Kah” at random moments. 
The Garden Orb needs to move to her summer home; weave her web 
by the front hose. Vacate the premises as the new shelves are sorted 
and assembled. Momma mouse must relocate the babies to the back 
of the butterfly garden. Fifteen oil change tubs have been disposed of 
and the electric tools charged and hung properly against the south wall. 

People Magazine announces that Marie Kondo is no longer organized. 
Something about three kids and being busy. Mothers everywhere chuckle. 
Then wonder if it’s too late to reclaim their Disney VHS First Editions 
donated to Goodwill during the pandemic. Or the full set of Aunt Ann’s 
apricot-colored Fiestaware. Marie can throw her hands up and surrender. 
As for our house, we will continue to Kondo. For the shed is getting 
its shit together. 

Carol Parris Krauss

loves to use place and vivid imagery in her poems. Her work can be found in a variety of publications such as Louisiana Literature; One Art; Plainsongs (Hastings College); storySouth; Susurrus; The Broadkill Review; The Schuylkill Valley Journal; and The South Carolina Review. She was honored to be recognized by the University of Virginia Press as a Best New Poet, and her first book of poems, Just a Spit down the Road, was published by Kelsay Books in 2022.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ The Rails We Ride, a poem by Carol Parris Krauss in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature (July 2022)

⚡ My Flag of Surrender Gently Swaying in Porcupine Literary: A Journal by and for Teachers (July 2022)