Kalliope
Means "beautiful voice" from Greek καλλος (kallos) "beauty" and οψ (ops) "voice". In Greek mythology she was a goddess of epic poetry and eloquence, one of the nine Muses.
Join us every Tuesday afternoon at the Daily Kos community political poetry club.
Your own poetry is always welcome in the comments.
Bongos, berets & turtle neck sweaters optional.
The keyboard is mightier than the sword.
I'm late posting this,
because we moved into the master bedroom.
"We" means my wife, Tonia, and I.
We live in a big house,
a five bedroom house,
with five other people,
as follows:
a single mom with two children,
who just moved in three weeks ago,
lives in a space next to the top of the stairs,
that's not even one of the five bedrooms;
Tonia's brother, Terrell,
lives in the bedroom above the garage,
through a door to the left,
at the top of the stairs;
Tonia's uncle Randall
lives in the converted attached garage.
Tonia and I,
for the last year and a half,
have been living in a twelve by fourteen room
that was added on to the back of the garage.
Tonia's brother, Michael,
is the man with the name on the deed,
but Tonia and Terrell and Randall,
some years ago,
put lots of money into the down payment
on the house,
so it has always been clearly understood,
that the house belongs to the family,
not just Michael.
And,
starting a few months ago,
rather than Tonia and I paying Michael,
and Randall paying Michael,
and Terrell paying Michael,
and Michael paying the house payment and utilities,
Tonia and I have taken over,
and now,
the others pay us,
and we pay the bills.
That's why it's not too strange
that Michael moved into an apartment,
when he found a new girlfriend,
and felt he wasn't doing
proper boyfriend duties,
if he asked her to live here,
since the house looks bad,
and has no water heater.
Michael and Terrell
worked very hard,
and moved all of Michael's items
out of the master bedroom.
So,
now is the time
for Mark and Tonia
to move into the master bedroom,
which is at the front of the house,
next to the living room.
This will make life better
for Tonia and I,
since Tonia is heavy,
and has bad knees,
and the master bedroom
has its own bathroom,
just a few steps away from the bed or chair.
I'd rather not make you turn away from your computer screen,
by describing how Tonia's been eliminating,
in the back bedroom,
too many steps away from any restroom.
So,
we're on the move:
the first thing we moved,
the only thing so far,
is our bed.
We moved our
home made,
hand made,
king sized,
platform bed.
I took it apart,
with my cordless drill/screwdriver,
and put it back together,
carefully,
with lots of measuring.
I put it together
differently
than it was for the last year and a half.
A king sized mattress
measures
76 inches wide
by
78 inches long.
I made sure the platform
was almost exactly that size.
It had been different,
larger,
to accommodate a bookcase headboard
that I never did attach then,
and I don't want now,
and also,
I had it built big enough
to accommodate
twelve plastic totes
of a certain size,
clear plastic totes,
that cost about $5 each,
at the Walmart where I work.
Now that I re-made it,
so it's almost exactly,
as I said,
76 inches wide
by
78 inches long,
there's room under the platform
for only ten of my totes,
but that's still a lot of room for storage,
under our bed.
I built the platform,
mostly,
from half inch thick
oriented strand board,
the lower priced sheet lumber
commonly used nowadays,
in place of plywood.
I made it in this way:
visualize a simple grid,
with six compartments,
all compartments open on the left and right,
and the grid is made of thin sheets of lumber,
on edge,
with all the on-edge sheets of lumber
sixteen inches tall,
attached to each other using screws,
and using small two-by-four boards at the junctures,
since it's easier to do that,
than to try to put screws into the thin edges
of thin lumber;
I have one 78 inch long
by
sixteen inch tall
sheet,
on edge,
down the center,
with eight,
36 inch long
by
sixteen inch tall
sheets,
crosswise,
four on the left,
four on the right.
To help you visualize
the clear plastic totes
under our bed:
One, two,
lengthwise,
under my shoulders,
three, four,
lengthwise,
under my feet,
number five,
crosswise,
under my butt;
six, seven,
lengthwise,
under Tonia's shoulders,
eight, nine,
lengthwise,
under her feet,
and number ten tote,
crosswise,
under Tonia's sweet ass.
So,
all three dimensions of our platform,
carefully built and re-built
to support our king sized mattress,
are
76 inches wide
by
78 inches long
by
17 inches tall.
I say 17 inches tall,
even though the uprights are 16 inches tall,
because you have to put the actual platform on top,
stupid!
For our platform,
I used one sheet of oriented strand board,
and one sheet of particle board.
There is a narrow sheet of plywood added,
and a short two-by-four board,
crosswise under Tonia's side of the bed,
but that's enough description
of the lumber we have
under our king sized mattress.
I have so much more to say,
about all the moving we still need to do,
and about our backyard garden,
producing so many cucumbers,
we need to buy more ranch dressing soon;
and,
most of all,
I have so much more to say
about my truly smart and patient wife,
Tonia.
She and I are both smart,
but with her advice,
with her approval,
every chore seems reasonable,
at least,
and,
often,
full of joy.
I've done things like this,
as a single man,
and I can handle it okay,
like the first platform I built,
for an older king sized mattress,
in the spring of 2008,
not long after my first wife, Pam died.
I did okay.
But who was it for?
I didn't know it at the time,
but it was,
already,
even back then,
for Tonia and I,
not just for me.
I feel better about this bed:
it has more of a sense of purpose about it,
the purpose is to make life a little better,
for my bride, Tonia, and I,
to give us a feeling
of moving forward,
moving forward with her family,
especially her brother Terrell,
who admires me,
and admires my leadership role,
alongside Tonia,
leadership in making the whole house better,
leadership in planting a back yard garden;
more ranch dressing for the cucumbers,
I tell you!
Back to the topic of the bed:
I worked so very hard,
for so many hours,
taking that lumber apart,
carrying it over,
piece by piece,
and putting it together,
different than before,
better than before.
I struggled,
shoving and dragging our king sized mattress,
across the kitchen floor,
and, when I finally got it in place,
Tonia came in,
and said to flip the mattress over,
and I did,
and we put a fitted sheet on it,
one with stripes,
multi-colored stripes.
It was 11 AM.
We had worked through the night.
I was bone weary tired.
I tried to get out of bed at two or three PM,
to get this diary written and published on time,
at 4 PM Tuesday,
but I was so very bone weary,
so very tired,
I had to lay down longer,
and then,
our day was busy with the little kids,
and fixing meals,
and this is the first chance I've had,
to get this diary done.
Better late than never.
Thanks for reading.
Readers & Book Lovers Series Schedule
Feel free to write a poetry diary,
instead of me.
No one has volunteered
to give me a beak,
leaving all the rest of the Tuesdays,
for a thousand years,
for you to choose from.
Such as:
August
6
13
20
27
You have the poetry in you;
I can feel it!