Downstairs<\/p>\n
Bedroom on the second floor, laundry
\nin the basement, two flights of stairs carting
\nbaskets of dirty laundry down to sort and stuff
\nin the washer, detergent, softener, check the timer
\nand back upstairs.<\/p>\n
First floor kitchen, dining room, living room
\nand a bathroom screaming to be scrubbed. While
\nthe clothes agitate, I reach for the spray cleaner;
\nbottle is empty. I climb stairs to the bathroom
\non the second floor, grab the cleaner, descend again,
\nstart to clean the bathroom when I think I hear
\nthe done signal from the washer; go down to find
\n13 minutes left on the cycle. I could stand there
\nbut instead go up, see a sink full of dishes, open
\nthe dishwasher to find it is full of clean dishes. Sigh.
\nI put them away, pack it, fill it with soap, press start.<\/p>\n
For some strange reason, I\u2019m still holding the bottle
\nof bathroom cleaner; I go back upstairs, figure I might
\nas well clean this bathroom, not remembering I didn\u2019t
\nfinish the downstairs one. I turn on the showerhead
\nto rinse the tile and nothing happens. No water,
\na loud gurgling but no water.<\/p>\n
I hear a loud sound unlike anything I\u2019ve ever heard \u2013
\nsomething like a garbage truck crashing into
\na snowplow with a thousand panes of glass
\nbetween them. I race down the stairs, dishwasher
\nstopped mid-cycle and another groaning growling
\nsheet-metal shredding war with monster trucks
\nsends me soaring down the stairs and there,
\nwater water water water water everywhere
\nwater capped in soap bubbles undulating like
\nan angry tide, a waterfall cascading up over
\nand behind the washer.<\/p>\n
Slippers sopping, knees complaining, I trudge upstairs,
\nfind the plumber\u2019s number, unleash a frantic plea
\nplease please please please emergency, says he\u2019ll be
\nright there. Back downstairs, waves are cresting;
\nuseless to try to do anything, I go back up, wait
\nat the door. It seems years but he pulls up, I direct him
\ndown, I go up, first-floor bathroom tiles covered in foam.
\nI slam the bathroom door shut, peek down the stairs
\ninto the basement, hear him curse, go up to find more tiles
\nfoaming, slam that door and go down to the kitchen.
\nI open the glass cabinet; empty. I get a paper cup
\nfrom the bathroom, fill it with vodka and go outside
\nwith the bottle to sit on the deck. Soiled clothes still grimy;
\nboth bathrooms grubby; dishwasher stacked with dirty dishes.
\nI vow to sell the house, buy a ranch with no basement,
\nhire a cleaning service, and send my laundry to the cleaners.<\/p>\n
~ J R Turek
\nJune 27, 2020
\nHour 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Downstairs Bedroom on the second floor, laundry in the basement, two flights of stairs carting baskets of dirty laundry down to sort and stuff in the washer, detergent, softener, check the timer and back upstairs. First floor kitchen, dining room, living room and a bathroom…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68909,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68882\/revisions\/68909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}