by Mel Glenn (Brooklyn, NY)
It’s possible to miniaturize my essence
by examining the contents of my
desk drawer filled with junk.
To wit: writing notebooks, bank statements,
Swiss Army knife, business cards,
glasses case, stamps, address book –
a life residing in a box before the
end of life in a bigger box.
Perhaps God is looking at His junk drawer
deciding how to arrange all the scattered
people and things collected over the eons.
Maybe he should just leave the box alone,
let the contents shift for themselves,
or maybe he should wash away
the whole drawer and start life anew.
In His cleaning and arranging,
and in mine, we both like
to make order out of cosmic chaos.
The author of twelve books for young adults, Mel Glenn has lived nearly all his life in Brooklyn, NY, where he taught English at A. Lincoln High School for thirty-one years. Lately, he’s been writing poetry, and you can find his most recent poems in a new YA anthology, This Family Is Driving Me Crazy, edited by M. Jerry Weiss.
If you’d like to learn more about his work, visit: http://www.melglenn.com/
The Jewish Writing Project 
Hi Mel, one of your stronger, penetrating poems. causes one to pause & reflect. a great poem to be read by ( or to ) the congregation a few days before the High Holy Days in order to pierce their armor of indolence & indifference. [ that is for those who attend services once a year merely as an annual routine ]. But again, perhaps more pertinently, a timely & sobering message for us all.
Symmetrical metaphor throughout the poem, nicely done, Mel!
Like all feeling people, you want to believe in a G-d that takes care of people, creates order out of the messiness of the world’s junk drawers. But as a modern thinker, you look at world situations, draw your conclusions and think otherwise. It’s the human condition: we think, therefore we know best? Hardly.
But keep asking in your fashion which we enjoy.