Combing Through Song Titles

PROMPT:  Song titles are succinct word gems and can give such wonderful starting points for poems and writings…  During the Creative Writing Workshop we combed through CDs (of artists such as Tom Waits, Pink Martini, Feist to name a few) for inspiring, intriguing and captivating song titles…  everyone chose one and we wrote from there.  Here is one of the pieces from that evening!

Home I’ll Never Be (after Tom Waits)
By: Vanessa Ramsey

Home
Sitting at the dark brown antique dining table
In my family’s kitchen
My chair
Facing the white-washed walls with a purposeful clock
And a calendar
As if the date and time were of the utmost importance
My father to the right and my brother to the left
Facing each other as if they were always onto a secret that I didn’t yet know
The regal chair
The papa bear’s chair
Glued to the floor with weights and chains, pulling it down

Dinner
A home-cooked meal
Perhaps stir-fry or meat and potatoes
A stick-to-the-ribs occasion of feasts
Tick tock
The white linoleum place mats with lilac trees and happy birds
How my soul longed to sit and swing among the branches
Heavy yellow trimmed plates with a ’70’s design
Milk to do the body good
My meek reflection in the antique matching china cabinet
No china
Only trophy beer steins won from distant rugby matches
And a nutcracker shaped like a nut
How original
Unpaid bills
Letters
Too matter of fact,
My 16-year old self could not possibly try to untangle
Tick, tick, tock
The corner dishwasher that remained tucked away
Until yellow-trimmed plates needed a washing
Lift up the weights
Unravel the chains
Strip the glue
Let the clunky washer out of its prison
Squealing, wheeling echoes across the unmatched patterned floor,
I could not escape
What day of the month is it anyways?
Squinting to make out the calendar dates,
Realizing that if she was still here,
She would have turned the pages
May was 2 months ago
My family kitchen
The place where I live
And the feeling of homesickness
So deep, it’s bottomless
No home to go home to
Home, I’ll never be

One comment


  • Evelyn

    Incredible writing! I can see this kitchen and all that’s in it. So sad.

    April 6, 2011

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