The article highlights The word "leftover" captures this simultaneity of uselessness and possibility; calling something a leftover both conveys the tragedy of its present rejection and invokes a future in which it will be reintegrated; one throws away scraps and one keeps leftovers for tomorrow; and Edward Lear is a poet of leftovers in precisely this sense; and that transformation promised by rhyme is deferred, endlessly, in favor of an inert leftover that cannot be used up.