Requiem for an Old and Busted TV

Remember the TV we had that died that I wrote about in January? I finally got it off the dresser and into the trash can. I thought the occasion merited a poem:

It deserved better than this

left to lie in state for a month

on the dresser

in our bedroom

that bright, loud box

that once entertained our now-grown

children with cartoons

and movies on VHS tapes

when they were small

and this was all we had.

After nearly 21 years

this machine outlived pets

outlasted most marriages.

It spent its last years

in our bedroom

lulling my wife to sleep

with syndicated sitcoms

and cop shows

all with perfect picture

perfect color

for years upon years

until that afternoon

when she heard

the buzz and

the picture blinked out

it was a miracle it lasted this long

surviving two children

and five cross-country moves

Now cold, cracked, and dark

shrouded in dust

(it was always dusty)

I take the old TV outside

(it’s been a month already, for God’s sake!)

to wrestle its capacious corpse

of ancient cathode ray tube technology

into a thick contractor’s waste bag

Pieces of the television’s

already broken case

snap away on the concrete

as I stretch the plastic about

its carcass

For its years of trouble-free service

it deserved better than this

So do most people and things I know

good, evil, or indifferent

we all end in a landfill

of some description

all love, duty and devotion

(if any happened to be there)

a feast for bacteria and vermin

I’ve done my spousal duty

The trash is on the curb

days like today

I wonder

why I bother.

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From the forthcoming collection Nymphomagic Electroshock and Other Middle-Aged Complaints.
Copyright © 2016, 2017 by Lawrence Roy Aiken.