This realization that I am a sitcom-crier came to me two nights ago as I watched the Netflix show, Man on the Inside, a sitcom about an older man, Ted Danson, whose wife has recently passed from dementia and who lives in a retirement community as a spy trying to catch the person who stole a necklace.

It isn’t a pure sitcom and certainly doesn’t have a laugh track or a live audience given cue cards and encouraged to laugh or applaud at specific spots.

But for the purpose of this poem, it is close enough.

My guess though is that many people would cry watching this show. A show that deals with dementia and also makes you laugh?

There is nothing hidden in this poem, not intentionally, save the reference to Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is simply to use the word “curb” near the end of the poem and the reference to Seinfeld with the whole gloves bit.

That’s not much allusion.

What strikes me as I read the poem now, right before posting it, is that it has a different voice than other poems I’ve written recently. I even use an exclamation point! That might be a first for a poem of mine.

Some things to note–I have never lost a pair of gloves from leaving them on my car. I’ve lost plenty of gloves, but not that way.

And I haven ‘t dropped a mug my son gave me. Not yet. I’ve dropped plenty of mugs on our tile floor though.

I know that I chose gloves simply because they fit the sound of the poem right there, rhyming with “love” and turning the poem away from sentiment for a second. And because of the Seinfeld joke, which is a bit about the OJ trial.

This poem also uses two fairly cliche similes–the personification of the seasons and the new year as things that sneak up on us. As I tried rewriting there, I decided that the tone of this poem almost demanded simple metaphors.

I’ve found that I like breaking out in rhyme at times where the reader might think there are not many traditional poetic elements present save enjambment.

The image is a picture of cayenne peppers in a plastic bag. I was caught up in the light patterns that showed up as I played with the levels and saturation of the image.

Now I’m off to sand a floor that I thought would take two days to install but now is on the second month. I’m sure there is some poetry to be found in this comedic situation.