“Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It isn't even in the same neighborhood. No one has ever gotten a religious experience out of removing burned-on cheese from the grill of the toaster oven.”--Erma Bombeck
I loved reading Erma Bombeck's books when I was young, and I have--at my old age--the messy house to prove how influential she was in my life!
Today's blog poem, Rejected Embroidery Projects by Triny Finlay, is not quite about housework, but there was a time when such needlework--like vacuuming or scrubbing the toaster oven--was considered women's work. Besides Rita Dove's "Dusting, I am not coming up with any housework poems. Cooking? Lots of poems by many different poets. But clearing the table and washing all those dishes and cookware? Um . . . crickets. (I am sure they are out there--they just are so few . . . )
Of course, Rejected Embroidery Projects and Dusting have little to do with housework. But wouldn't it be fun to write a housework poem (or short story, essay, memoir piece, etc.)?
For this week's prompt, choose a household chore or traditional woman's work task. Write about it in one of these ways:
as a symbol for various memories (like Rejected Embroidery Projects)
as an activity the speaker is doing while thinking of a specific person from the past (Dusting)
as part of a chant-like poem that uses a lot of repetition (especially anaphora)
as a feminist critique
as a meditation
as an activity the speaker uses to work out an intense emotional state
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