Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment: Tiling Time Fri Aug 10 2007

Fri. Aug. 10, 2007 3:22am
written as part of the 3:15 Experiment where poets all over the world wake at 3:15am to write in a hypnopompic/hypnogogic state “between sleeps” then “publish” the results as is unedited

I think it’s cheating
if you write when
you’re still awake but
I am so tired
I think I’m half
asleep–
I should be
asleep
but since I’m still up
I thought I would
see what I can see

I have to admit
I am wearing socks
on this warm sumer night
big thick wooly hiking socks
because my feet have a
stubborn collection of
caulk
thinset
cement board powder
& god knows what else
encapsulating them
I don’t know if I have any
fingertips left
they’re so red from
scrubbing off mortar
off trowels
tiles buckets mixers

And I have to admit
I have been up til
midnight
1am
2am
and now well past 3am
retiling a bathroom
what a misnomer!
tilings the easy part
it’s finding the studs
the tools the backerboard
the tape the mortar
it’s figuring out the pattern
laying it out over and over
for hours on end

it’s 8 trips to various stores
from Buena Tile before the
showroom opens at 9am
to slipping into Lowe’s
before they close at 10pm
it’s having almost everything
not quite work the way
you think it will it ought it should

it’s having the easy things
take a lifetime &
challenging things take forever
it’s deciding today better
is perfectly all right

it’s stil going to
the Natural History Museum in LA
the Beach Boys at the Fair as planned
plus the Bangles and the Motels
of catching the fair fireworks
of attending family gatherings

there are only so many hours in the day
writing at 3:15am you discover
there are more than you thought

Looking for more poetry? There’s lots on this site on pages marked poetry and broadsides or mosey over to the Poetry Train Station or Read Write Poem.

Watch for info on readings I’ll be doing this summer in June, July, August, and September!