by Coleman Glenn

“In northern Denmark, an IKEA showroom turned into a vast bedroom. Six customers and about two
dozen employees were stranded by a snowstorm and spent the night in the store, sleeping in the
beds that are usually on show.”
—Associated Press

(with apologies to Robert Frost)

Whose store this is we surely know;
Head office is in Stockholm, though.
They will not mind us staying here
As all the roads fill up with snow.

With suppertime now drawing near
We have provisions for good cheer,
E.g., a lingonberry shake
With Swedish meatballs and a beer.

And after dinner we can take
A showroom bed—no need to make
This furniture, no need to keep
That tool to fix some dumb mistake.

The beds, it’s true, are kind of cheap;
But dreams of doing this run deep,
And where else would we rather sleep?
There’s nowhere else we’d rather sleep.