BARE: Uncensored Poetry

30/30 Project Day #16: WORK = LOVE

Photo taken by author Naomi Knight

WORK = LOVE

The highly educated pom-pom sits.
Atop an endless pot of tea

Four generations, seen and heard
Nothing new under the sun.

Everyday, good china used
Each cup: extraordinary in an ordinary way
Lovingly poured,
Without doctrine or liturgy.

The teapot sits and thinks while

The pom pom solo dances the rhumba.

Many days pass by, service is forgotten
Her warm hands long since cold
No longer pour love for the soul.

Never a collector’s piece
It was made for use.
Gleaming from
Diligent joy,

She didn’t work; she stayed at home.
Cooking and baking, she fed an army.

Pouring endless cups of tea, she managed
the Battalion’s births, deaths and marriages.
Always on the time clock
Yet she always had time.