Apartment 36

The smell of acetone

in a bare-bulb living room.

 

I won’t forget these nights.

 

Streaking colors across

worn-out fingers

smudged from laughter

and unsteady hands.

Years from now,

I’ll look back

and wish to return

to our little apartment

our tiny, untidy apartment

 

and as I write these words I already do

but right now I have the whole world in front of my eyes orbiting around my mind

in my mind 

it is mine

in my mind

it is mine

 

 

 

 

but so is this room

this bare-bulb living room

and so are you

and so are you. 

Reviews

[Thomas Skahill]

I like how this poem is composed to lead the reader along with the speaker in her questioning of what exactly is tangible in their immediate reality. The final repetition is one of my favorite parts, only outweighed by the repetition of "it is mine" in the stanza above the last. I think we all one day yearn for our own Apt 36's. thanks for sharing.!

[Patient Poet (Yos)]

I love those simple poems about places and memories , I love your style xx

[John]

The repetition at the end reminds me of Robert Frost's Two roads diverged in a yellow wood: And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Apparently, the repeated line was inadvertent but kept in as it was so evocative of the speaker's weariness.

In your poem, the life change involved in moving home challenges the poet's sense of self, what she she possess and who she is. The 'so are you' could be the person herself, her companion or even the reader, who at some point in the future will read these lines. Like Frost, she too is at a crossroad in life.

[V]

interesting one. pretty different from what ive read so far. i like the trains of thought in this one.

[Ben Taylor]

I love nostalgic poems. The repetition makes this poem beautiful--it almost makes me miss your old apartment.
Also, this line is inspired: "bare-bulb living room." What a perfect description.