Monday, August 15, 2011

Room With A View



Image borrowed from Bing

Room With A View

Beneath the plaster old newspapers were stuffed
between half-petrified framing boards, Barbados
for roaches and rodents--a comics section with
Ally Oop peeking out, a bold headline that stated
President Eisenhower would put up an American
satellite to compete with Sputnik, a movie page
with a third of a QUO VADIS ad visible,

three thimble-sized metal toy cars pig-piled near a
cross beam, and a vacant bee nest three feet across,
its translucent honey combs empty and thin as
waxed paper,

walls that were once pea green back in the 40’s
when Bobby had the room, decorated with drawings
of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Hopalong Cassidy,
which gave way on one section to great billowing breasts,

then sometime in the mid-50’s the walls became daisy
yellow when Lucy inhabited the space, to match her throw
pillows, handbag, handmade quilt, a silken swath under
her jewelry box, and her swimming suit,

becoming jet black when Jedd rebelled in the late 60’s,
painting it coal bin black with silver spider webs,
peace signs, rainbows and raised fists along
the shoulders of every wall,

morphing into pale pink as Suzie matured in the 70’s,
complimenting her pink fingernail polish, pajamas,
feather boa, and leather boots, all pink, mantled
by pop star posters that would leave hundreds of
tack holes, little love craters that one could trace
the pigment history within,

and now everything is plastered over, sanded smooth,
and wearing a suit of purest white on sashes, door
and window frames, and base boards, transformed
into pristine antiseptic virginal white, where geometry
is abandoned, edges blend, pushing out all ancient
perspective-- becoming angel white, dove wings,
a spiritual portal, a walk through for specters,
a healing room--creating kundalini light from pigment;
a space to dream, to meditate, to write,
to ascend.


Glenn Buttkus

August 2011

Listed as #40 over on Magpie Tales 78

Would you like the Author to read this poem to you?

12 comments:

Brian Miller said...

ha. nice take and walk through of each generation that changed it...neat to see the personalities in each...and glad you have your space to ascend now...

Marian Haddad said...

his is fantastic, glenn! . . .

glad i opened it before i basically exit AOL for a few days
a hectic load
i will be on FB likely through Wed on and off
was about to sign off of AOL totally and saw this . . .

it's excellent, thanks for sharing

Helen said...

I'm THERE ~ 1941 abd beyond! A Magpie I can totally relate to ...

Tess Kincaid said...

We rehabed a charming bungalow in Kansas City in the early 80s that had eight layers of old wallpaper in the living room. It was incredible to see the history of the house in the layers of paper. I love how you ended with the spiritual white, since I happen to be in my "white period".

Brigid O'Connor said...

Such a lovely take on the prompt, amazing how much a room can reflect a time.

Ann Grenier said...

Ah ... I breathed deeply at your final decorating scheme. Great history of style through the decades, enough to make one cringe and shiver at times. Nice work.

robkistner said...

this was excellent Glenn, it was fun, burrowing the way to the surface, moving forward in the pigment time machine...

Trellissimo said...

Can't beat white surroundings to let the mind paint as it will...

Mary said...

A great take on this Magpie prompt ..very clever ... smiled at the little 'love craters' on the wall. Pop star posters were huge back then ... and left many 'love craters' for the decorators in our house!

hyperCRYPTICal said...

After decorating rooms in revoltihg papers and paint colours (I thought lovely then) I appreciate the beauty of white!

Nicely done.

Anna :o]

Jannie Funster said...

I like the part about all her pink stuff -- I can relate.

xo

Erratic Thoughts said...

Color changing with generation and people, what a unique take on the prompt :)
I have always believed that a room reflects it's occupant's persona...you said it so aptly...