Saturday, May 01, 2010

NaPoWriMo #29: secret life

The next workshop prompt came from a long list of possible stories we could write about, and I chose this one: "write a story about your public/private/secret life". I'm not thrilled with the title, but I'll probably play with this one a bit because I think it's got potential. And I'm open to suggestions, if you have any.


The Care and Handling of My Secret Life

My secret life is sealed
in a Mason jar with peaches and cinnamon
after a ten-minute bath in a boiling kettle.

My secret life is curled
in a tight ball with the wood lice under a blanket
of unraked sycamore leaves behind the tool shed.

My secret life is congealed
in a pint carton of buttermilk
that got left in the spare fridge last summer.

My secret life is disintegrated
in my husband's front pocket with his paycheck stub
that went through the wash.

My secret life is folded
in the Mother's Day card
I was too busy to mail to my mom.

My secret life is blooming
in the lilac smell that takes me back
to Donovan Street where we lived when I was nine.

My secret life is eaten
in the strawberries my son steals off the vine
when he thinks I don't see.

My secret life is sewn
in the seams I stitch with black thread
because I ran out of navy blue.

2 comments:

Super Happy Girl said...

I love love love this one!
Made me hungry, homesick, smile, sad, happy and wish I had been drinking hot cocoa when reading it.

chicklegirl said...

Aw, SHG, it's so good to see you here--I've missed you. Thanks for all your kind comments! Oh, and nice hat. Was that in honor of the Derby?