Tin Tub
for Rachquel Phillipa Walkine
not easy against life's toil and strife
to remain pretty, friendly, nice
what sustains you, keeps you positive
but more than positive, elated or seemingly so
is it a mask you wear or is it joy really
what you can't fake or put on, I'm certain
are your gleaming eyes
out of where does that arise
what reservoir are you tapped into
full of life and light
always near the surface and ready to fly,
a smile, with others following
as easy as birds aroused, about to take off
one following another, off earth or off a lake
or off some place, off to some place
must enter air to enter heaven
or to take off for some other pond,
some other lake, some other land
some birds journey from pole to pole
or east to west about the globe
from what direction did you come
to this place, to this rock
we happen to be together on
eking out a living, smiling about it
is it because earth is not our home
sojourning here, we smile at it as it spins
as if attempting to wring us out
like a mop or like clothes
in an old fashioned tin tub
grandmother washing, wringing
hanging towels, bed sheets, underclothes
out to dry
are we too blowing in the wind
drying on the line
how hard working and how pretty
you are all the time
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
1:52 a.m. 20.05.09
for Rachquel Phillipa Walkine
not easy against life's toil and strife
to remain pretty, friendly, nice
what sustains you, keeps you positive
but more than positive, elated or seemingly so
is it a mask you wear or is it joy really
what you can't fake or put on, I'm certain
are your gleaming eyes
out of where does that arise
what reservoir are you tapped into
full of life and light
always near the surface and ready to fly,
a smile, with others following
as easy as birds aroused, about to take off
one following another, off earth or off a lake
or off some place, off to some place
must enter air to enter heaven
or to take off for some other pond,
some other lake, some other land
some birds journey from pole to pole
or east to west about the globe
from what direction did you come
to this place, to this rock
we happen to be together on
eking out a living, smiling about it
is it because earth is not our home
sojourning here, we smile at it as it spins
as if attempting to wring us out
like a mop or like clothes
in an old fashioned tin tub
grandmother washing, wringing
hanging towels, bed sheets, underclothes
out to dry
are we too blowing in the wind
drying on the line
how hard working and how pretty
you are all the time
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
1:52 a.m. 20.05.09
posted by Obie Quiet at 2:05 AM
4 Comments:
This is so beautiful!!
How very kind your words are, ScotchBiscuits. Your taking the time to look, to read, to understand and to appreciate, actually complete these poems. They are not finished until you add what your bring - your eyes and your responses. I am grateful.
this is one of those that warms my heart, how i loved the allusions to being like birds and then you excellently sealed it off with the old time nostaligic reminder of not too long ago washing clothes with hands..how long ago it seems and yet was perhaps only yesterday
Esquire, just back from Cuba, I can appreciate your reflections very well. There are in Cuba, so very many reminders of how things were done in the not so distant past, in the good old days.
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