"Housework" Proudly Accepted by Blinking Cursor


Last week, I got an email from the editor of the literary magazine The Blinking Cursor, Samantha Rose. She was writing to inform me that the latest edition of The Blinking Cursor with my poem in it could be purchased on Lulu.com. I ordered mine right away and I can't wait for it to come!

According to my contract with the magazine, I do not have to wait to publish the poem elsewhere, so I can post it now.


Housework

I dip my hands into the steaming water and scrub

At bits of crusted-on cereal and the remnants of a thick green soup.

A bit of boiled egg floats by.

The water is already coffee-brown under the layer of bubbles.

I do not feel much like the plump sweet bride

You brought home only five years ago.

She had soft, clean hands.

I feel like an old fish-wife

with my hair pulled back tight

and my arid, bony hands immersed in dirty water.

I imagine your face when you open the flimsy trailer door

And see that I have finished the dishes.

I do not know who you see when you look at me,

The old fish-wife or the sweet, plump bride,

But I do know that you’ll be grateful that the dishes are done,

And that I am grateful I have someone to do dishes for.

Comments

  1. I especially love the picture that you put with the poem. It really looks like that at my house as you know. He sees his bride if you smile and are happy that he has come home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought about looking online for a picture of a sink full of dishes, but then I thought...there's my sink- it's full of dishes. That is what it looks like right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think doing dishes is something I will never grow accustomed to.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is a wonderful poem. I don't mind doing dishes, but I don't have many to wash. Just my own. So was glad to hear in the poem that you were glad to have someone to wash dishes for.
    And I also wanted to thank you so much for adopting a cat. That is terrific. One more has a home.
    Have a great week.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations on your poem being published, great news but did you really have to remind me about my sink full, thanks a lot.

    ReplyDelete

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