Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

CBU

Maude Millicent Rosevear, generally considered pleasant and quite the beauty,
sent her hopes off, by mail, in 1955.
Consider her surprise when they return to her in 2015. 

Maude, now aged seventy five,
nearly trips over the parcel while walking out of her door
on her way to the pharmacy for her numerous prescriptions.

"Non-standard surcharge," states one of the rubber stampings.
(That business with Alice, at college, in 1959?)
The postal system cares about her package. The plastic wrapping says so.
Nonetheless, they have returned it.

"Postage due", "Addressee Unknown", "Unclaimed" all on the side.
Bent, frail, living in a mother-in-law apartment attached to her son's house,
Maude supposes the return of her hopes was inevitable, 
but it didn't feel that way when she sent them. 

Maude goes back inside and sits down to compose a letter--
--an old fashioned paper letter--
to the Unabomber in prison. 

"Dear Teddy," she writes, "I finally understand."
Perhaps this one will get through, she thinks.
Perhaps he will even answer, and if he does, 
she must be sure to be the first one to the mailbox, and to not lose her key.
_______ 

for Get Listed at Real Toads. I used "prison", "mail", "inevitable", and "system".

CBU--Cluster Box Unit, a freestanding outdoor multiple delivery receptacle for mail.

CBU-55--cluster bomb fuel air explosive. 

13 comments:

  1. quite a twist! captivating from start to finish, lovely little narrative.

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  2. There's a whole backstory here that would be fun to hear too, I bet ;-)

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  3. That feeling that leads a lady to write to the unabomber and be the first one to the mailbox? I know it, but I've never heard it expressed in such a unique and utterly perfect way.

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  4. "--an old fashioned paper letter-- / to the Unabomber in prison." will definitely be loved by Teddy, who was so against modern technology...

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  5. I love your concept of mailing one's hopes when young and having them returned unopened in old age. Such a great metaphor.

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  6. As Kerry says, a unique and very personal metaphor here that you work with great skill. The final feeling, there at that last line, is how we are failed by every system, and how somehow, we must understand (or produce) our own explosions of protest to maybe blast our way out. Hope must always be sent postage due, you make me feel.

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  7. Oh! My! God! I LOVE this so much. (Have you been spying on me? LOL.) I especially love "Dear Teddy, I finally understand". Cackling.

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  8. You can't forget the little details in any thing, I guess! k.

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  9. Clever and I wanted more~ Poor Maude-she sounds like quite a broad.

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  10. Maude sounds like my kind of gal!

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  11. I'm sitting where it's hot, and this gave me chills, Shay. Thanks for playing ~

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  12. Not simplistic....full of woof and warp

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?