April 12.24: Coping, but barely

Here is a bit of U.S. history, pertinent to some of us at this time.

1948, dear taxpayer:

   

 

There you have it, beginning to end, four pages: three for calculations, one for tax table. This, of course, excludes the instructions, which no doubt were as illuminating as the directions on these pages. I was only five at this point and didn’t notice such things, but as I grew older I learned to give Dad a wide berth at tax time. When he spread papers out on the table in the breakfast nook and held his head, we knew this was time to be respected almost as much as a Notre Dame game on television.

 

March 6.24: Coping, but barely

Everyone knew the egg,

poor hapless splatted thing:

“This is your brain on drugs,”

the well-worn messaging.

Now in equal measure

of non-poetic waxes

comes season of the addled:

this is my brain on taxes.

 

Many thanks to Susan Rushton for another eloquent image.