LJIdol / LPF: Week 3: Tsundoku

[codenamewanderlust]

It had been a pattern for awhile.
As soon as I would make a space exactly right I would suddenly have to move

Take it all down 

Start over in some other place with the barest essentials usually

For years this would happen to me over and over

I would find just the right way to arrange the furniture for efficiency of space and energetic flow 

Perhaps it’s a nomadic tendency held over from being born poor and having a complicated family history  

I got used to living out of boxes

But I couldn't help making any new new living situation my own in some way

 

I've become sentimentally attached to furniture and cried over thrift store clothing finds I had to leave behind

I have one small steamer style trunk that has followed me somehow 

From home to home

Even after a brief stint “on the road”

My friends passed it from closet to basement until I landed on my feet

 

Books were the hardest to lose
 

Adopted from curbside free bins
or bought at witchy boutique shops or sidewalk sales

 

Mémoires and travelogues mostly skimmed

Underlined and highlighted

Out of print novels with enticing covers vying for attention

Coffee table photography books of the strangest homes money could build 

And abandoned railway stations

 

I’d take as many as I could carry when the time inevitably came to choose

I buried my favorites in the bottom of the trunk; read and unread unlike 

I’d get somewhere new and begin making it home

Stack books on the floor until I was gifted a night stand by a new roommate 

Or that time I found a sturdy wooden desk spray painted silver and purple left for the trash collectors that I carried three grueling blocks all by myself because I didn't have a car

 

I have two shelves now

That came with the small non-permitted diy back porch room in my grandmother’s home in Florida for I have returned like a boomerang for a third time
This time I got myself a job as a  bookstore barista and have acquired more books to add to the ambiance of the room 

I took all the books out of the steamer trunk and lined them up by genre, and size

I’ve got a stack of unread library books next to my bed though

Somewhere along the way I gifted myself a kindle paper-white - I treasure it,as a literary gormandizer and minimalist lover of efficiency to me it is magic

but I still can’t turn down a good cover, or the musty scent of old pages 

Maybe I will put up more shelves
 

One of the shelves I can barley reach because the room wasn't originally built for me
I hope to afford just the right folding step stool that could double as a seat to maximize the space 

 

I have put up art on the walls

Made curtains

I recently bought a minty colored folding table to use my gram’s shiny black Singer sewing machine from the 40’s that still stitches like a beast as I sit on the edge of the bed
 

I call the room the Rainbow Oasis 
I am afraid to get it set up exactly right
 

 

Comments

[bleodswean]

This is a word painting! An accomplished piece of writing that has created an endearing and enduring image.

[sonreir]

Oh, wow, I can relate to this. I had to move unexpected about two years ago, and when I did, it meant getting rid of almost everything I owned. I've been living in my house for a year and change, now, and I'm still afraid of losing everything. You captured that feeling extremely well. <3

[tonithegreat]

It sounds like you find beauty even without bounty. I love your strong bittersweet last line here.

[the_eternal_overthinker]

"but I still can’t turn down a good cover, or the musty scent of old pages" Of Course! Lovely room painted with words and I might not mind spending time here. Very well done!

[codenamewanderlust]

:D Thank you! I am always told my space is cozy and welcoming and I love hosting company

[adoptedwriter]

This is beautifully expressed as is!

[codenamewanderlust]

thank you! I was worried about punctuation

[bewize]

This has lovely imagery in it. Well done.

[static_abyss]

An excellent and emotive piece. Well done!

[rayaso]

I especially loved the last line. I enjoyed the details, and how you managed to bring in the prompt.

[halfshellvenus]

Oh, I remember moving again and again in those college years, and the fear that just as soon as something is the way you want it, it'll be time to move again.

I like the sense that your steamer trunk, always sturdy and self-contained, held the most precious of your things, your favorite books, and that it had a safe home for them even when they couldn't be with you-- knowing you would always come back for them as soon as you could.

[nayanawrites]

Beautiful .... Very recently after the flood affected our state - I found an old tin trunk belonging to my grand aunt - a bright blue with lots and lots of books.

The books had been totally drenched - but I hope to salvage some of those old books. She had the habit of personalising them.

Our minds are like those boxes.... holds the most precious things- those that are sturdy and last long ...

Well Done

[alycewilson]

I like the accumulation of experiences in this poem. I can identify!