Damp Laundry
Mom and damp laundry
Despite new products, incensed:
The skid marks remained
© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
For Three Word Wednesday: Damp, Incensed, Skid
…and your second helping (hope you already ate dinner!):
Rank
The new apartment was spotless:
Creamy carpets calming, yet daring any mud
to tread or trespass.
Spacious closets; bathroom, a religious experience.
We moved in, delighted to have found
a small space offering big comfort.
Then I stepped into the hallway
shared by a dozen apartment front doors.
Smacked in the schnozz by a complicated, rank odor.
Some good: Spices, worthy chefs working ethnic magic.
Much more body odor… culturally acceptable
where the bodies originated, harking back to my East Side days.
Worst – cigarette smoke sneaking out to play hookie,
curling, wending its way from under some front doors.
Lingering like a London pea-souper, toxic fog.
© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
ABC Wednesday – R, and Poetic Asides, “Telling it like it is.” Also at my poetic home-away-from-blog, Poets United!
Sharp Little Pencil 
booguloo
Maybe they will make a industrial Febreze soon. no smiles…
Sharp Little Pencil
There you go. I was thinking of putting rolled up wet towels in FRONT of their front doors, LOL.
vivinfrance
Amy, you’ve given me one more reason never to move house again. Well concocted for the prompt.
Sharp Little Pencil
HA! Thanks, Viv, this was a cute comment. We are firmly rooted in apartment life, never having owned a home and both in our 50s.
Madeleine Begun Kane
Good job on both of them!
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Mad, truly appreciate it. Hope you got a laugh… you’ve given me so many! Amy
Roger Green
My tolerance for cigarette smoke has diminished over time.
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
Sharp Little Pencil
As has my tolerance for the Buffalo Bills, LOL.
a.m. trumble
I love these!
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Amy…. did you see Buddah’s new Virtual project? You can call them in at 951-665-8161. Too cool, huh?
Buddah Moskowitz
Both excellent, my sistah! Esp Rank. Liked the earthiness of it. Consider adding it to virtualpoetryreading.com (just call 951-665-8161 and leave it on the machine!)
Keep at it !
your brudda from anudda mudda
Mosk
Sharp Little Pencil
Will add Rank to the rank of poems there, LOL. Thanks for doing this extra part of your virtual poetry reading project – it will truly reap rewards, if only in the form of more participants! Amy
ladynimue
haiku for 3WW !! you mailed it Amy !!
liked the poem too 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Nimue, I finally did it, and I know you of all people rejoice for me. You are so good with the haiku/3WW, I am constantly amazed. Thanks, hon! Amy
Renee Espriu
Know this but now well, thank goodness, and after raising five kids, two girls and three boys….Just glad not to have had to live in the kind of apartment you refer to but some motels, just as bad. Descriptive in a good sort of way. Thanks Amy!
Sharp Little Pencil
Renee, five kids? God bless your huge heart. That takes a capacity for infinite patience and love. And believe me, I had my share of SROs, couches, and cars as homes… Thanks for a comment I can relate to! Glad it’s in the past for you, dear. Amy
Tumblewords
Laughing and liking! 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Thought you’d enjoy, you have a great attitude! Peace, Amy
Sharp Little Pencil
Thought you’d enjoy, you have a great attitude! Peace, Amy
Anna :O]
Lovely stuff Amy.
Thanks for your comment on OCD to which I am about to respond – if this comp lets me as it keeps going off line!
Please email me if you wish.
Anna :o]
Sharp Little Pencil
You got it, babe! Lots of my friends on the blog do the extra talking via email with me, and you are more than welcome! 😉 A
Tilly Bud
Didn’t read the second, after your warning, but I loved the first 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Ha ha, it was about living in a stinky apartment building with various folks who don’t shower and who smoke a lot!!! Amy
Helen Mac
“Rank” ranks right up there with the best!
HelenMac
ABC Wednesday Team
Sharp Little Pencil
Helen, thanks so much for the compliment! I wrote this right after coming in the side door and being assaulted by sweat spice smoke!!!
Meryl Jaffe
Great post – I enjoyed both of them. I share a landing with another tenant and as a non-smoker am always so upset with the rank of cigarette smoke! I related easily to your post.
Sharp Little Pencil
Meryl, our name is Legion. My heart goes out to all who are not able to quit, because my mom died of emphysema and was literally detoxing from cigs in the smokefree hospital. It’s never too late to quit: That’s my message, because it’s her sad legacy, the extra pain she went through on top of cirrhosis and kidney failure, to suffer that extra indignity. Thanks so much. Amy
christine
I thought about skid marks when I saw that word prompt but didn’t know how to write that in, you did this well, I laughed. (I have a vegan friend with this laundry problem).
Sharp Little Pencil
It’s a very good friend who will admit this problem to you!! Yeah, I was “on the skids” the whole way, LOL.
uponthewingsofnight
As a lifelong nonsmoker, I know how offensive to the senses cigarette smoke can be. I have to smell that once in a while in our apartment building. A very good descriptive poem, Amy.