For Rent

525,000 minutes since last year,

That is the sum of the moments so dear

525, 600 minutes, since I cooked the Thanksgiving

turkey last year.

And how do you measure, measure those dinners

Sometimes touched with laughter, sometimes with a tear?

In guests fed, in Grace said,

By portions, by fortunes,

In wishes or dishes on which we were fed?

525, 600 minutes

Of everyone armed with a fork and a knife,

Is that how you measure a year in the life,

In preparing dressing,

Or pre-mealtime stressing

The measure of joy

Or the specter of life?

Well, how about

15, 840 minutes of cooking,

88 drumsticks to serve to the crowd,

The time's now to sing out

The answer is coming,

The waited-for answer

So clear and so loud.

In heartbreak, in cheesecake,

The journeys we must take,

It all comes together,

The way that we feel.

In snowfalls, in wishbones,

In calls made from cellphones,

with meal cost and souls lost,

The measure of life is

Played out on a reel.

How about that?