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No purchase order number is necessary
for this special holiday thanks, stamped
"overdue" in the Accounts
Receivable of the business
staff, whose diligence--too routine
for recognition--is the one budget assumption
we can always count on,
as they work,
Shaker-like,
holding back that tide of pensions and
payrolls, the soaking downpour
of deductions, those menacing puddles of
decimal points, and flash flood of numerals
that threaten to engulf.
So a holiday thanks,
Pauline, Carleen,
Peggy, and Barbara,
to tell you, yes, I did happen to notice
all that help stretching way beyond my credit line
through endless marshes of
purchase orders, of accounts marked "811"
or "813," of Journalism monies divided neatly
into piles of "supplies" and "texts,"
of an ancient Promethean cache, of
Echoes monies now vanished,
and of budget lines marked for Forum only.
Most of all thanks for not wincing
too much, when I crash in, some project following
close behind, perhaps even a cart of envelopes
piled to the sky,
as you look up, water rising,
and ask simply, "can I lend a hand?"