Burning the Lot - Oct 12 2025

 

Burning the Lot

Oct 12 2025

The minimalist 

ideally must be rich

to show off all that space

in his airy mansion

or trendy loft.

Because less is more;

   …more virtue than his peers,

       ...more enlightened than his class,

            … more smug

                than his status-seeking counterparts.

While the less privileged

accumulate

as best they can.

Like a winter animal putting on fat

to survive the coming cold,

the less well-off

on the knife edge of want

prepare for austerity.

I was raised to be frugal

never waste.

But I have the means and the space

so stuff accumulates

despite my better angels;

there, just because,

needing upkeep, collecting dust

or simply keeping up

with what’s expected of someone like me.

But my preferred aesthetic

is an empty room

in white or eggshell.

It has large windows with functional blinds,

and a painting or two

that remind me of nature.

But no ornament, embellishment, or clutter;

nothing

that belongs in a museum

behind a velvet rope.

A spare room,

except for a single chair

side table

reading light.

All I really need

in a culture of excess,

were acquisition rules

and ostentation

overwhelms good taste.

So my estate, with little to inherit

will not end in litigation

over who gets what.

Will not burden my successors

with burning the lot.