Thermometer Advertising the Now Defunct Apple River Dairy Co.
This thermometer remembers
No day in particular
It only ever knows
The temperature now
Which happens to be 9 degrees
I remember in summer
When it said it was 90
But it doesn’t
Remember that
That is
How many years
Has the bloody mercury been
Rising and falling
Whether anyone was looking
At it or not
Like a good poet
Not caring if anyone notices
What they did just there
Yet honest as a mirror
And even when it went
A little too far
Saying it was hotter
Than it really was
Because it was in the sun
The farmer whose barn
I found it in the ruins of
Forgave it the way you forgive
A poet you’ve come to trust
When they go a little too far
With a metaphor
Like I am doing
Likening a rusted thermometer
To a poet you trust
But maybe you don’t trust me