YOU CAN'T PUT THIS ON MASTER CARD

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?"


All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
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