Friday, June 19, 2026

Pledge

Lately, I’ve been thinking about
the spray can of lemon-scented
furniture polish my mother used 
to carry with her through the house— 
how she aimed, then easily wiped 
away the film of dust that had
gathered on every surface that week. 
We owned nothing fancy—no cedar
or mahogany—but she made those
particle board shelves and scuffed
Goodwill tables gleam with a few 
swipes of her cloth. Now, when 
steadiness and reason seem to have 
faded from our world like the ink 
on old photographs, I find a cloth 
of my own and get to work, this 
cleaning a kind of pledge I make:
I still care enough about this place 
to try and help it shine.

—James Crews

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