Bleach Water and Dish Soap

Works really well to clean a wall...

He stands in the bare room

Walls stripped of all pictures

Left blank and pockmarked

 

So strange it is to be here

Staring at this bleached canvas again

And he can feel the small twinge

The slight irritation

The desire to decorate again

 

But this is not his purpose here

This place will soon be returned

The apartment is now vacant

And walls are only a testament

So he runs the rag over the surface

To continue washing away

The residual memories

Left on the paint

 

Watermarks fade away

Cracks become more apparent

But every time he returns to this room,

This blank space, he remembers

The first time walking through the door

 

The simple open space

Free of furnishings and clutter

He remembers wandering silently

From room to room

Opening doors and inspecting all along the way

He can almost feel the manager

Standing in the doorway

 

He can remember the feeling that crept slowly up his spine

As he realized this was it, this was home for a moment

 

But that was the past and

This is now

There is no woman

Waiting to hear what he thinks

Anxious to collect his money

 

There are only repairs to be done

And a schedule to keep

This place is no longer a home

It has truly become

Vacant

 

06/01/2013

0605 am

Reviews

[Dan L. B.]

I really like this piece. I feel that this is one large analogy. To me, it expresses an artists desire to create again but he realizes that he is not able to because his mind (the room or home in the poem) has become vacant. The language is so simple yet so compelling and the deep influence is quick to connect and remains present even after the initial reading.

[.]

This is an incredibly vivid piece of writing. My initial reaction was of fear -- I wasn't sure if the narrator was leaving an apartment or leaving a family. But now I can see that what happens to the narrator after this experience is open to interpretation. I think that this piece is also a very powerful metaphor for transformation, if one applies this to internal transformation. Sometimes we clean our minds -- removing the last traces of certain past impressions. Then, we move to new thoughts and plans -- sort of like a new mental location.