Our Son Leaves His Fifty-Inch Plasma-Screen TV
Behind Because There Will Be
No Room in the Dorm

The remote control is eight inches long
with a display that I never understand
no matter how many times
you explain it: "Dad,"
you said, looking not at me
but the flitting basketball
and the neon cheerleaders,
"it's universal." So it
is. Then why is it only your Mom and me
who have to stare
at this blank Buddha
in our living room?
Its four sides
four years
times forty
thousand
dollars.