Avocado Kitchen of the 1970s

Rabbit, Rabbit.

May brings some notable endings. It’s the first day that it hasn’t been National Poetry Month for the past 30 days, and the first day that there is no organized month-long community writing group occurring. The Stafford Challenge continues, but Slice of Life and VerseLove have concluded for the year. May also brings the end of the school year for students and teachers, and there is a strange sense of winding down and gearing up all at once.

I’m ready for that pause. I have friends retiring this year, and there is a strange mixture of both fear and envy for them. I want to be at the point where I can load the camper and take off for two months and see parts of the country I’ve never seen, just my husband, our three dogs and me. My limited time in the summer, for this year, I hope will satisfy my traveling itch for the coming year.

Today’s paint chip poem is one that I wrote when The Poetry Fox, Chris Vitiello, visited my town. We sat together at the oval table by the window in the far back corner on the night of his visit and wrote several together, then shared. I saw the avocado green paint chip and went straight back to our 1970s kitchen on St. Simons Island, Georgia at 208 Martin Street, where the washer and dryer sat at the carport end of the kitchen.

Avocado Kitchen

avocado kitchen ~ matching

wall phone with a long cord

for those 1970s Velveeta

grilled cheese

Wonder Bread holy sandwiches

the kind made

in a cast iron skillet

by Mama with her black beehive wig

and sleeveless white and yellow daisy

button-down and green Pappagallo strap

sandals while she flitted about

and flipped the toast in the butter and

gossiped with her cigarette-smoking

friend Bonnie Jean about that new

lady vacuum sales rep who

brought skepticism and raised

eyebrows of all the wives…….

#VerseLove Day 22 with Margaret Simon of Louisiana – Prose Poems

Margaret Simon, our host for VerseLove Day 22, lives in Louisiana. 

Margaret inspires us to write prose poems of emotion today. She explains, “A prose poem looks like prose; however, there are poetic elements that set it apart from a paragraph. There is a rhythm of poetry within the prose-like lines. Contemplate an invitation to an emotion. Write it out in prose. Let your words flow out like the water from a teapot.”

Click, Click, Click, Ding

….at the table with The Poetry Fox ~ his vintage typewriter clicks like my mind, wondering how he works this magic. Writing poems in a minute, pounding out letters, words, thoughts, feelings. Bringing tears of sentiment, laughter of imaginings, words and images to life. Like a heartbeat, rhythmic and steady, not skipping a beat until the poem is complete and he stamps his paw print, reads the gift aloud, winding my joy-filled heart right into the ribbon of those keys I can still clearly hear…..

click, click, click,

ding,

click, click, click, click, click

ding

click, click-click, click