RECYCLING

9 8 Y R E C Y C L I N G D A V I D O R R Newspapers, magazines and glossy inserts May be combined with other paper types, But plastic bags, product samples and shrink wrap Must be isolated for individual disposal. Clean corrugated boxes and egg cartons Are acceptable, as are pamphlets and cookbooks, But wax or plastic-coated boxes should be left Beside gift bags and wedding invitations, Where they will be periodically inspected, And, if approved, cleaned and restored, Albeit in the desultory manner in which one Does favors for former lovers. Opened mail And non-metallic stationery and cards Are permitted, unless the messages they contain Involve condolences, gratitude or threats, In which case they must be sealed in air-tight bags. The bags must then be placed in containers With labels indicating the nature of the contents And its intensity – for example, genuine regret Receives a red checkmark, whereas regret laced With schadenfreude would receive a black X. Unpostmarked letters addressed to ‘‘you’’ Must be placed in a blue bin, unless the salutation Is followed by a cliché, truism or old joke, Which requires a bag sealed inside another bag And placed sideways in the appropriate bin. 9 9 R Unaddressed, unpostmaked letters or diary pages Implying that one’s inner life is determined By a series of breakages, di√ering in their specifics But resembling one another in ferocity, Each of which appears to leave one arrested in time, So that by early middle age, we are presented With a series of selves frozen in tableau, As if a life were a mountain upon which A train of hikers had expired in the cold, Each hiker being distinguishable from the others Only by virtue of positioning and the aging process Must go in the green bin, clearly labeled, Along with letters that reference previous letters, And scripts that break the fourth wall, Particularly in the service of brittle cleverness. Those that do so out of desperation Or an almost pitiable e√ort to connect When it is far too late, and so improbable As to be nearly impossible, as in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which, as she surely knew, Was no less a fantasy for being described as such, May be placed in metal cans with napkins, Along with mirrors from which the reflective backing Has become detached, making the mirror More accurately described as a window Through which images pass but do not return, Such images being the reverse of those Captured in photographs of solitary figures, Which are nothing but a perpetual returning And must be isolated for individual disposal, Unless the figure is positioned such that The illusion of a connecting gaze is maintained, That is, the subject’s eyes follow the viewer, Which is a function of the mind’s perception 1 0 0 Y Of pictorial space as independent of the visual field That contains it, allowing the illusion to be Maintained despite rotation of the frame And consequent ‘‘thinning’’ of the figure, In which case the photograph may be sealed In an air-tight bag and placed in a red bin, Which should be left beside the blue bin That contains electronic storage devices Whose circuitry retains documentation Of individuals once central to the owner Who have vanished or become diminished, And who exist now as purely digital presences, Rendering them weightless though not formless, And still somehow dense with meaning, like obelisks Rising alongside an ancient road and inscribed With markings untranslatable yet vaguely sad, And that circuitry must be clearly separated From any corporeal residue, hair or nail clippings, Which are not acceptable, although drawings In which figures are merged with landscapes Are acceptable if the landscapes in question Involve harvestable terrain, and not, For example, ice floes or snow-caked tundra In which one could imagine a body eventually Becoming as alien as stone or iron or plastic, Though recoverable for study by future generations. Bodies so discovered are acceptable And will be picked up by 3:30 on weekdays, Along with newspapers, magazines and glossy inserts. ...