Two Rooms

The word “Stanza” comes from the Italian for “room”. 

One room is a bar, dark and loud, with such a crowd the trip—table to bathroom and back—is a snake’s dance, partner to partner.
One room is an 1850 cotton field.
One room is the back seat of a 1965 VW beetle parked at a drive-in movie. It is November, and the couple in the next room front seat are making out
One room includes a glass of cold water and formal parlor furniture 
One room is a picnic table
One room has a thousand strings of beads
One room has a green blackboard
One room is the sidewalk in front of a Court House. A small number of  people carry signs
One room is inside a Court House. The floor is marble, and so are the walls
One room is dense with the smell of ground coffee
One room is a kitchen where two people argue in whispers
One room includes suffering

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Returning to our two-stanza poem. Re-think it as two “rooms.” The beginning of a movie. Why these are juxtaposed may never be entirely clear. They create a tension.Perhaps a joyful tension. Maybe a sleepy step away from rest.

Still, two five-line stanzas without apparent connection.

This time,though, allow yourself this much connection: something on the order of a cigarette in one stanza and an ash tray in the other.  Feel free to re-use your previous stanzas, or to re-work any other old poem. Feel free to use one of my rooms. 

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