A TISSUE

[Ever happen to you?]

Sing hey! for the tissue, its bits bright and clean,
Twinkling like stars in your washing machine.
Sing hey! as you follow its bountiful track,
Showing up best on the clothes that are black.

Sing hey! for the search that you made in each space,
Through pocket and sleeve for its sly hiding place.
Sing hey! for it's won and it's here now like new,
Its myriad fragments all smiling at you.

Sing hey! as you pluck betwixt thumb and twixt finger
Through jersey and sock where the wee pieces linger.
Sing hey! As you find just how far it has been,
And the shreds in the drum that will never wipe clean.

Sing hey! for the puzzle: that tissue so small,
And hidden, you thought it was not there at all.
Sing hey! now it's back, if assembled again,
It would make a loose cover for Salisbury Plain.
Sing hey!
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