Joseph Chelius 

Retired Thermos and Office Supplies

For years my dependable blue thermos
has languished in the mudroom
on a high metal shelf,
still wearing its matching suit and cap
as if hoping for a return to the office
where it can assume its place 
on the corner of my desk,
all day keeping the coffee hot,
joining others like itself—
stalwart stapler, wire in-basket
and green banker’s lamp—
which, through the monotony of hours,
worked as a team,
each of them doing its one job well.

And which though scattered now—
to a shelf, a landfill,
a box in the attic—
I want to bring together
for a mini reunion, acknowledging
their productivity and service—
the fealty of their careers—
with the sharpened point
of a Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil
which in corporate yellow,
in the flattened hat
of its smudged eraser,
it seems only fitting
should deliver the speech.