Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Laundry date

(based on suggestions from @eglantinescake and @SeanMElliott)

Stuck between a rut and a fresh place

Crush embarrassed water between fists

I've never lost a stain, I can bash

Every damp sock clean like fish on a rock

No one can answer every girl correctly

Can rinse down planets for her or

Extract powdered star granules


Retract nerves on the spin cycle and

Obey rules of romantic thermodynamics

Maybe on first listen, everyone

Asks the same soggy questions. But

No load is the same, no atom spins its

Course to clothesline soaked and alone

Every smooth sheet is a wet dream

____________________________________________

Today's poem is based on suggestions from two peeps:

  • @eglantinescake: "I want you to write a poem about laundry."
  • @SeanMElliott: "Science speed dating?"

Today's poem didn't go where I intended. After Penni's suggestion, I was intending a gentle, cool poem about the soothing aspects of doing the washing (I find it soothing, anyway, especially hanging it out). But when science speed dating was added into the mix, a kind of frustration crept into the words (I also find doing the laundry frustrating. DOONA COVERS are so unwieldy, argh). It's odd when words won't behave themselves for you.

Also, today's poem is another acrostic. Not that I'm obsessed by acrostics or anything.

2 comments:

Sean said...

Two lines I particularly like:

"romantic thermodynamics"

(There's another poem or prose piece just waiting to unpack that one.)

And the last line. Lovely. ;)

S

Anna Ryan-Punch said...

I thought you would like 'romantic thermodynamics' :)

I agree, too - I need more hours in the day to flip some ideas out of their little cameos.

Thanks, for all of that.