I’ve got a busy week coming up so I thought I’d get right on to the Marathon today. I might do another session later in the week if there is time. We’ll see.
I continued last week’s theme of writing to photos of scenes around my house. Here we go.
Two laundry baskets and this is what they said to me. A tanka chain.
Two laundry baskets
sit empty on the high shelf
elderly ladies
wearing shapeles shirt-dresses
settled comfortably close
on a bench. They talk,
or not – worn hands clasped in laps –
arthritic knuckles
hold in place loose wedding rings
of a style fifty years old
A tanka. In the closet.
4.
something orderly
salves me. stacks of towels rise
by size and color
linen closet a refuge
a small but potent healing
Pillow on my living room sofa. A haiku.
9.
byzantine plot twists
and the cool gray sofa blames
the patterned pillow
Lamp in bedroom. Shadorma.
2.
cream blouse and
tan-white patterned-dot
pencil skirt
your face young
painfully eager to please.
Sketch: first job first day
A shadorma for beaters from my little mixer. I will be making a cake later this afternoon, by the way.
7.
Cake batter
Mixer whirls the bowl –
Flour sashays
with butter!
Sugar hops! Cake in oven –
Let’s lick the beaters!
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I love the inspirations for your poems! And that is the first time I’ve ever read anything creative related to laundry baskets!
I kind of wonder myself where this one came from, but – I looked at the photo and immediately this is what I thought. Funny thing, these baskets have been around for 25 years, they have their own real story, but this is the one they chose to project to me???
As for the laundry baskets: wish I had even one! It got lost in the last move, lying somewhere along the road.
You know, I have had these baskets for maybe 25 years, we used them to sort clothing in our old house but in this one I got a different style to fit in the room. These “ladies” still get out and work for me, I use them a lot. They don’t make ones like these any more…
I love your colorful laundry baskets, but my favorite is the lamp. Perfect! (K)
Thank you. Re the lamp, I looked at the photo and immediate saw a personality and clothing. And to top it off, in real life the lamp and its companion twin are new, and so they have new jobs!