The Gifted Kitchen

posted in: daily poem, Poem Diem 2015, poetry | 0

Watching my husband and his brother
struggle the 2015-sized refrigerator
through the 1902-sized doors,
I hear this song:
“Works for everything that’s handed to her,
never once complained.”
Maybe the song is about us.
Except at the moment it’s just the guys doing the work
while I think about how we seem to get ourselves
into predicaments a lot.
This time there was a solution:
unbolt all the doors and
lay them on the couch, the chair, the rug,
and lean them up against the counter
and the house itself.
It fit, just barely, and took it’s place in our kitchen.
There is also a dishwasher, which was also given,
but which was also a piece of work
with a pipe cleaner and a dental pick.
And the faucet, which turned out to need a part
that could be found nowhere in town
but could be fabricated,
by Ryan, at the end of a long day,
out of a paperclip.
Everything in our kitchen, a gift.
The mixer: free for the fixer;
the blender: just bring it to Bogotá and back;
the hot water: works for the one who works for it;
the staircase: finders keepers;
the stove: came with the house and apparently a mouse;
the stuff: a small prize for getting rid of lots of other stuff.
I look out the window and there’s the pile of pavers,
which we would have paid for with sweat,
except that it was too cold for that on the rainy autumn day
we dug them
literally
out of the dump.
“Works for everything that’s handed to her,
never once complained.”
I’ve complained a time or two,
but not about the working
or the things handed to me,
but maybe about how life goes too fast
and it’s often hard to have supper on time
and hard to get to bed on time.
But I’m thinking,
maybe I should just say thank you.

[includes lyrics from “The Gambler” by Fun]

Week

posted in: daily poem, Poem Diem 2015, poetry, time, work | 0

Seven is the number of completion.
One week left: completely incomplete.
But when I am through I will be finished
because I just have strength for one small week.

The Things We Ask About

posted in: baby, daily poem, Poem Diem 2015, poetry | 0

They always asked, “Is he growing?”
and “Is he sleeping well?”
until he evidently was.
And then no one ever asked,
“Are you, by chance,
giving your baby steroids
and sleeping pills
just so we’ll stop
asking?”
No, no one ever asked that.

Purpose

posted in: daily poem, Poem Diem 2015, poetry | 0

Is there a small place of bliss between busy and bored?
Or do they overlap?
Find your purpose
to push them apart.
Maybe that is your purpose.

Feed

posted in: daily poem, Poem Diem 2015, poetry | 0

Since I got this smarter phone,
I have less time to read,
unless, of course, I count my time
spent reading through my feed.
They call it that, don’t you know,
because it eats your brain.
You are feeding your feed now.
I bet you can’t refrain.

1 2 3 4 5 6 70