spill

I can't write just one line

I have to spill

my therapist encourages my interest in cleaning houses 

I reread "A Manual For Cleaning Women"

spill spill

untenable winter, everything dark

"The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think."

when I get home from work

it's like the sidewalks have gone vertical outside

I have to keep still to be safe

go for walks

Mary told us a a riddle 
or was it a clue from a cross word?

it turns into another story

the answer is

a spiral staircase

I’m enchanted by that

walking the road behind Kayla’s house
behind this urban place 

with some shops on a strip

it mysteriously curves
slopes up and around 
to a beautiful LA vista

a surprise rural canyon
rolling hills empty and gold 
a couple pointy junipers
and dry yellow grass

climbing the clean sidewalk is like
marble
a spiral staircase in a fairytale castle

up into air smelling like eucalyptus, magnolia

we've been singing songs from 
Snow White and Pinocchio all day

I'm weeesshinng
walking in a wispy wonderland

pink sunset then mist over the moon

we talk about Rebecca Solnit’s essay

on Virginia Woolf’s “darkness”

it's about walking, and hoping
and her "the future is dark" quote

we keep singing 
I'm weeesshinng
I'm weeshing
between talking
and I do wish
I do hope

Twin Star 60 PCS Oneida Flatware Never Used Vintage SHINY

I wonder if all my poems are household poems

they're all about plants grooming bedding

the things that keep me going

in anticipating moving I'm collecting dining things

a pink glass dinnerware set

a red glass dinnerware set

both say "MADE IN FRANCE"

a marbled blue and white enamel dinnerware set

all the sets have 4 dinner plates 4 salad plates 

4 bowls 4 cups

also the 4 Mexican clay dishes

with painted white and green flowers

that I bought at the freaky flea market in MD

and 8 thin bubble colored goblets 

with clover shaped mouths 

and the type of hollow stem that holds liquid

they remind me of Glenda the Good Witch 

I just ordered a 60 piece silverware set 

the 1960s "Twin Star" design by Oneida 

I can't stop thinking about how nice 

it will be to host with them

it keeps me going truly I am fantasizing 

about the day we can go to Wing Phat Plaza

and buy a humongous bag of rice

and thinking about buying bulk dry goods

for my pantry

for a kitchen where I can obsess about minimizing waste

where I will never use paper towels and will have

all matching kitchen towels 

that I wash once a week

call me crazy but 

I feel infinite peace thinking about it

Sunday Prompt: A Household Poem

A Household Poem

sounds like it's something

for everyone in the house to hold

like a household dog

something shared

I imagine it on the fridge

it could be like rules or

a chore chart cooking

has been reheating

recently

I think of the old Christian Guys

who founded Hermon scary

around the fireplace in 1912

rats probably maybe harmony

my grandma's pet rat Georgia 

lived on her kitchen counter

she was tan and white with

red eyes and now I need

clorox wipes

my grandma has already

visited me in every dream

I've almost given up on 

sleeping don't count on it

need to cushion the ends

of it with pillows but

they are still suffocating

in garbage bags outside

which reminds me

I need to take out the trash

tonight

tonight's sleep cushioned 

on either end with the 

grumbling of trash can

wheels and then the

chaos of garbage truck

it's hard to believe 

they don't crush cars

with the claws

yesterday, I read a children's book

called Trashy Town

there was a lot of repetition and

it was about a real garbage man 

named Mr. Gibby