Ode to Nail Clipping Day

a day for things left too long—

for oil changes! for alphabetization!

for masturbation! bill paying! & shower-singing!

for getting a book from the shelf like an old friend

today was an exceptionally good Nail Clipping Day

&— I’m not just saying that!

I’m not pulling your leg

I’m too busy pulling all my chains that need pulling

it is a pulling day!        

a day reminiscent of the first queer scene I ever read in a book

where the one man washes the foot of another

to say I love you, I am in love with you, & this is the only way I can express it!

Nail Clipping Day is not always good

it is like all other days in that respect, I suppose—      

often it is a pestering line of pleasant questioning

an untimely phone call interrupting quiet company

although, I would like to note

the days of late have been good

they have been filled with nakedness!

& nature! & wine!

after a string of such days

it is only right that it was a good Nail Clipping Day

when it is a bad one—

there is not enough money to pay the bills

there is no forthright tune in my head

& the friends stay on the shelf

a bad Nail Clipping Day is a day intent on appreciating the neglected

only to culminate in middling failure (a letter unsent)

the independent existence of Nail Clipping Day

compared to other Capital Letter Days

adds to its exclusive positivity—you see

if today was Nail Clipping Day for anyone else it was by accident

I was privy to no such arrangements!

but if today was also Nail Clipping Day for you

I hope it was a good one

I hope it was a pulling day

A. Jay Dubberly is a writer & educator living on the West Coast of New England. He is the founder & editor in chief of Zig Zag Lit Mag, a hyper-local publication. Jay teaches writing & film courses through various colleges throughout Vermont. Most recently you can find his work in Bloodroot Journal, Meat for Tea, & Pif Magazine.