THE SALVATION ARMY
by Joanna Gilman Hyde
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:15pm
Last Night I packed up
the back of My Ford Escape
with cartons of dishes from The Shakespeare House
unopened
Eliza’s portable crib & baby blankets
from 18 years ago
My Grandmother’s Singer Sewing Machine
from 50 years ago
2 very good twin mattress pads
from when My Children visited Me —
Their Floral Comforters went yesterday too
along with My Fantasy Bed Set
composed of A Christmas Quilt
& Bright Red Sheets —
They went to My Kind-hearted
Social Worker Friend
Who told me She found A Little Man
made out of aluminium foil
somewhere within the folds
Joanna Gilman Hyde 
Amazing what we can find when we clean out the clutter.
I love this poem, especially the last three lines!
I hope you don’t mind Joanna, but your poem brought me here;
from “The Tin Man” by America
“But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have
And Cause never was the reason for the evening
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad.
So please believe in me
When I say I’m spinning round, round, round, round
Smoke glass stain bright color
Image going down, down, down, down
Soapsuds green like bubbles”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3fI0mLz3ks
Thank you Jackie for seeing the significance of the aluminium man — I had not made the connection to The Tin Man — yet I feel like Dorothy sometimes with the yellow spiral looking for “home.”