He enters through the laundry room, passes off his domed metal lunch pail, heavy with the stainless steel thermos that clips into the top of the box.
Boots off. Stained denim overalls and wrinkled red handkerchief dropped onto the dirty clothes pile. Now in his “suntans”: a khaki shirt and loose-fitting trousers reminiscent of his wartime uniform.
At the deep utility sink, water so hot it turns his skin red. With lava soap and a bristle brush he attacks the black tarry substance stuck to his hands and arms. Soap lathers up past his elbows.
Face washed, hat-flattened hair tamed with a black plastic pocket comb; only then does he enter the kitchen and greet his wife with a kiss. Supper is cooked and waiting for him.
Day Twelve prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem that recounts a memory of a beloved relative, and something they did that echoes through your thoughts today.
(Text presented at bottom of post if you don’t want to wade through the erasures. )
Law Gone! Introduction: A Neatly Cut American Dream
Since the development of our earliest law, a privileged founding father of America sought to elevate our nation's fence for keeping out lives. He envisioned a wall like the aristocrat model. Drive the streets today and you'll see one law flowing into the next.
It's easy to see how the law became so popular. When maintained with regular grooming, it can be used for play and relaxation. Installing a law is fairly tidy.
Law culture applying -- and suppressants -- became firmly entrenched and today many councils have codified standards for a front. Just look at the law -- packed with big business.
The Grass is Always Greener
The fact is, traditional laws aren't well suited to our country. The particular, as well as the drought-prone law, often require copious toxic cover, require several hours of maintenance and the power comes with a high cost. Today we have a better understanding of the law's impact. We're tainted.
All around the country you can find a nation differentiated. We deserve better -- and we can make it happen.
People hardly use the law, and it can seem awful to maintain something that you never use. Other types do a beautiful job of covering, and help reduce the law that afflicts so many. Adapt and ultimately use fewer. You'll have the satisfaction of harming the environment. Let's reclaim our space.
Law Gone!will show you how to remove the law. Walk through the methods of law removal and install your new guard. If you have rules or ordinances to contend with, minimize their impact. Find picks and experts to pinpoint plans.
Day Eleven prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own erasure/blackout poem. You could use a page from a favorite book, a magazine, what have you. It can be especially fun to play with a book you don’t know, particularly one that deals with an unfamiliar topic.
I chose to usurp the introduction from the book Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for your Yard by Pam Penick. My apologies to the author.
I grieve for lives lost because of others’ greed. I grieve for dreams crushed and opportunities denied because of prejudices and abuses of power. I grieve for hope dying, for hope lost.
I celebrate silly memes whose sole purpose is to express creativity and humor and joy in life; proof of the indomitable vein of humaneness within us. I celebrate sober acts of love, good will, humility, generosity and bravery of everyday people coming together to support, care for and protect one another.
I challenge myself to not look away, to not try to distance myself from the brutality, the callous disregard of suffering, the shortsighted squandering of natural resources that are the very foundation of life on earth. I challenge myself to right the wrongs.
Day Ten prompt from NaPoWriMo.net calls for “a meditation on grief.” I didn’t entirely meet the criteria of the prompt, but I’m still on track for a poem a day in April.
“Cats rule, dogs drool.” Ain’t that the truth! Gobs of slobber hanging at the ready so that with a mere shake of the head they become blobby missiles of slime slinging through the air to attach to the nearest person or food or furniture.
But not my dog. Oh there may be the occasional teeny tiny droplet of saliva as he sits patiently waiting for a treat but a simple dab of the floor cleans it right up and for anything more problematic he uses the handkerchief he always carries in his pocket.
Cats sneeze, dogs have fleas and ticks and intestinal worms and we won’t even go into the host of gross and despicable things they pick up from rolling on the ground just before coming into the house and jumping on the couch to use it as their personal clean up towel but really they're just grinding the grunge deeper into their fur.
But not my dog. Bugs are naturally repelled by the aura of cleanness that encircles him like a shield that even the most tenacious insect cannot penetrate and his fur is like teflon so if he encounter any foreign matter it slides right off him and when he enters the house he wipes his feet carefully on the door mat and politely asks if he is adequately presentable before venturing inside.
Cats blink, dogs stink. Boy do they! Imagine a grungy gym bag that has been sitting in a locker with a load of sweat-laden clothing and then that gym bag falls into a ditch full of putrid standing water and then is dragged across a not-so-well picked up dog park and then is left in a moldy shed to marinate for weeks and that’s how dogs smell.
But not my dog. He smells like a freshly washed linen sheet just pulled from the outdoor clothesline of a country cottage except when he is wet and then he smells like a freshly washed linen sheet that has been left out on the clothesline during a brief springtime rain shower.
Cats purr, dogs shed fur in great quantities flying everywhere to land on clothing and furniture and into food dishes and drinking glasses and if you are wearing black it will come from a white dog and if you’re wearing white it will be a brown or black dog that blasts you like a porcupine releasing its quills.
But not my dog. Oh I find the occasional strand of fur in the bathroom sink after he has finished with his morning ablutions of tooth brushing and face washing and running a brush through his ringlets of hair and it is so pretty with a sheen like fine tinsel that I just leave it there to enliven the otherwise dull bathroom decor.
And so now you can understand why I am a confirmed cat person and would never ever even consider owning a canine – except, of course – my dog.
Day Eight prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: In your poem for today, use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.
I can read minds, you know, and it’s not always pleasant. Like right now, you’re showing interest and kind of nodding along like you totally buy into what I’m telling you, because that’s the persona you want to project: openmindedness. But what you’re really thinking is that my purported ability to read minds is totally bonkers, and I must be, too.
We all have personas that we try to sell. Intellectual, confident, bad ass, honest and open… Yep, that last one is a projection, too. I mean, maybe you are honest and open. I’m not saying you aren’t. But you also want to be seenas honest and open, because that’s your persona.
So here’s the problem with reading minds: I can read who you are, who you think you are, who you think other people think you are, who you wish you were, who you wish others would think you were… That's a lot of reading, and -- as I said -- not so pleasant.
So, what about me? Who am I? Who do I think I am? Who do other people think I am? Besides bonkers, that is. I really haven’t a clue. What do you think I am, a mind reader?
Day Six prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: In your poem today, try writing with a breezy, conversational tone, while including at least one thing that could only happen in a dream.
Day Five prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem in which you talk about disliking something – particularly something utterly innocuous, like clover. Be over the top! Be a bit silly and overdramatic.
Day Four prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: craft [a] short poem that involves a weather phenomenon and some aspect of the season. Try using rhyme and keeping your lines of roughly even length.
He listens carefully to the recounting of symptoms, performs some preliminary tests, and they discuss options for treatment.
A clean cloth is laid out at his side, with a tidy row of tools he will use to perform the operation
He selects the appropriate instruments, and sets to work. Prep, syphon, excavate the offending material, rinse, close, seal.
“All done,” he says, washing up at the sink with anti-microbial soap. “I fixed the leak, cleared out the s-trap, and replaced some worn washers. Your toilet should work fine now.”
“Oh, thanks, man,” says the homeowner to the plumber. “You saved my life.”
Day Three prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: Today, we challenge you to write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 