What the Well-Regarded Said

A small person reads an old-fashioned

Printed paper magazine in which
August, well-regarded names follow
Passages of some profundity
And wit about being and aging.

The small person sets the magazine

Down on a battered side table next
To a futon made up as a bed
And thinks on what the well-regarded
Names are credited as having said.

The laundry machine cycles to spin.

Words above one well-regarded name
Refer to visiting someone’s grave.
Words above the other refer
To reading well-regarded writers

As if they were hard to understand.