MY OLD STRIPED ROBE

SHE WENT DOWN TO THAT MEN'S STORE!
*******************************************************

My old gray robe with the black stripes
   came along to me
Like a good friend, when I needed it
    most.
Not much to look at, but it is a splendid,
    splendid robe!

Made of soft thick velour, with stripes
    running through it, in all directions...
Like ridges to give it strength.
    Stripes look like chevrons
My wife says...

    It brings comfort with it,
Whenever you put it on...
    and it seems to hug your neck!    

Ere long, after donning it, you're warm
    as toast!
You never want to take it off.

Back in early 2012, weather got
    below zero...
So bad, gas got short and some
    people lost theirs.
Mil caught a terrible cold.
    Wouldn't go to bed---sat
In his writing chair, in an old coat
    with a little blanket
Over his head,
   writing and dozing--
Mostly dozing...and aching...

Everything...and everywhere was COLD
    that February.

Mil sat, as if in a little tent, with
   that blanket over his head...
There at his writing place,
    cold and miserable.

The Beloved Editor, one day, headed
    out the door with her purse...
As wives do.
   "Where ya' going?" choked Mil.
"I'll be back," she said.

Out of her heart of love, she just went
    down to the tall men's store---
Walked in, and said: "I want the softest,
    warmest, handsomest robe you got!"

"This is the ONLY one we've got in
     the right size," he said.
"I'll take it," she said.

It got me through that bad, cold time.
    I wear it every morning, 'cept
In the summer. It is special to me...
    like a kid and his blanket
Or teddy bear.

I wear it---"for better or worse,
    in sickness and in health."

I won't need a fancy robe in heaven.
    This one is fine!
(Maybe a pair of levis for the bottoms.)

Ah, wives and robes...both,  MIRACLES!

********30*******
BY MIL
12/08/13