I don't really need to change my style of living, since I'll continue living alone even after I get married. I like the freedom. So does my guy.
What other ways can you celebrate Independence Day?
Even if it's for five minutes? Even if it's just in your mind?
A Single Person Lives Here
I am sitting in the living room
contemplating the yoga mat
to the right of my chair.
It remains there even after I complete the
downward facing dog and forward fold .
No need to roll and store it.
I live alone.
I don’t need to change habits
that aren’t in accordance
the Good Housekeeping
Seal of Approval.
Ones that would bother another.
The water pick is oddly stationed in the kitchen
instead of the bathroom
where many would decree it belongs.
Cats are given permission to
sit on the dining room table
like feline centerpieces flaunting
validated entitlement.
A variety of socks have been recklessly
dropped in various coordinates of the home,
left for weeks,
in the cursive sock spelling of
"So?"
I can’t imagine having to
spend time removing dust bunnies
from underneath the sofa.
Always putting the coffee cups back,
segregated symmetrically
from the drinking glasses.
Having the romaine stationed
in the crisper drawer when
it looks more festive
unpackaged on the second shelf
close to things staring out of foggy,
green containers the have been in too long.
My time is better spent
sitting on the back patio noticing the sky,
the blue slice above the telephone lines,
ushering a cloud through
on its way to evaporation.
Or lying on the bed rereading Only Cowgirls Get the Blues
with the little cat asleep on my legs and the big cat
on the pillow beside me.
A breeze dusts over my face.
.
I don’t fall prey to scolding myself
or comparing myself to the ordered and exact,
because I decide I am serving an important
purpose.
I am illustrating that single people are artists
simply by how they order their mess
and how they mess their order.
Their homes are actually art installations.
The plaque on the exhibit would read,
An Artist Lives Here,
and the on-lookers
the ones who are living by themselves,
the ones I imagine are there observing
this thoughtful masterpiece ...
nod and understand.
(c) 2018 Jill Badonsky
Event Spotlight:
The Electric Womb Exhibition
I'll be reading poetry and sharing the art that goes with it this
Friday, July 7 5:15 in Liberty Station, San Diego
with nine other womyn.
More information here and below | 
