Natasha Trethewey

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Poems by Natasha Trethewey : 1 / 14

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Domestic Work, 1937 - Poem by Natasha Trethewey

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All week she's cleaned
someone else's house,
stared down her own face
in the shine of copper--
bottomed pots, polished
wood, toilets she'd pull
the lid to--that look saying

Let's make a change, girl.

But Sunday mornings are hers--
church clothes starched
and hanging, a record spinning
on the console, the whole house
dancing. She raises the shades,
washes the rooms in light,
buckets of water, Octagon soap.

Cleanliness is next to godliness ...

Windows and doors flung wide,
curtains two-stepping
forward and back, neck bones
bumping in the pot, a choir
of clothes clapping on the line.

Nearer my God to Thee ...

She beats time on the rugs,
blows dust from the broom
like dandelion spores, each one
a wish for something better.

Natasha Trethewey

Poems by Natasha Trethewey : 1 / 14

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Edward Kofi Louis (3/3/2017 1:54:00 PM)

Her own face! ! Thanks for sharing. (Report) Reply
Barry Middleton (3/3/2017 11:35:00 AM)

A great poem by the laureate which brings back memories of my own childhood and the limited options for African Americans of the old south. (Report) Reply
Tom Allport (3/3/2017 3:30:00 AM)

a well written poem of a persons weekly routine? showing how they took pride in what they did! (Report) Reply
Lisa Marie Mottert (3/3/2016 10:32:00 AM)

Very moving poem...it makes.me think of appreciation for life. Good work on this poem. (Report) Reply
Margaret O Driscoll (2/24/2016 2:33:00 PM)

I can just picture the woman from this piece! (Report) Reply
Wahab Abdul (5/24/2013 1:26:00 AM)

heart felt poem.. love it... top marks.. (Report) Reply
Scotty Pax (12/16/2012 6:11:00 PM)

Billy Collins Mime. Billy Collins mimicked the institutional; suburban. Where there is a lack of waste. Where the real has been washed down the drain. The hypereal art is drawn out in lackadaisical observation as an accepted mineralization of brain rust. The suburban landscape... go back to your Eisenhower 50s. Find the new symbolism to cure our psychosomatic lethargy, eh? (Report) Reply