Elan Mudrow
Smidgens
Seeking The Ultimate Mismatch
My clothes, bunched in a pile
Hiding inside wicker,
A fragile basket
After a cleansing wash
And a bout with tumble dry
Wanting to be rid of all dirt
Smells, and experiences
Of the last week
Or any week’s past
I’m not ready to hang them
In their place
Where plastic hangers
Await to reestablish the norm
Which is my norm
Which is our norm
Hiding in the closet
A constructed confinement
I pick them from the basket
Wrinkled, some of them
Others unaffected.
I pull at a sleeve, or a
Pant leg, the fuzz of a sock
A moment of chaos
Stretching seconds into
The loss of the final choice
Of the daily mix and match
Yet, they are the same
Once placed upon my body
Worn in the same fashion
As the week before
Contact will be made
Again
With the same old smells
Who was I fooling?
Fashion chaos or the ordered closet
Only have finite amounts
Of time……Each…..
to adorn, decorate,
My linear body, with
Cuffs too short for winter
Waste size expanding
Until garage sale or thrift store
Replaces all my norm and chaos
With other versions of closet space
And clothes lines.
Still, I seek to deconstruct
My fashion sense
24 Comments on “Seeking The Ultimate Mismatch”
Join The Discussion
Recent Comments
 | Sharon's Writers Tid… on Mountain Rain |
| Railing | Mary Clark… on Railing | |
 | vishnupria on Plazmic |
 | Walk, Love, Sparkle on Crows |
 | Elan Mudrow on Plazmic |
Elan Mudrow 
Great writing 👍🏼 and thnx for the follow.. It seriously meant a lot 🙂
LikeLike
I liked this! Fun to read!
LikeLike
Great writing. The ad for hampers whipped me back to my childhood…
LikeLike
Sadly I have no hamper and my wardrobe does not go to Narnia either 😦
Therefore, you would have seen me yesterday, as I started doing a very Japanese thing with my clothes and intend to carry on with that today:
1) I laid a sheet out on the floor.
2) Put most of my clothes on it carefully laid out from red garments on the left to purple on the right (I need to carry on with this today, before I start using the floor as my wardrobe)
3) Later today I will do that Konmari thing of seeing which ones bring me joy (keepers) and donating the others to charity (even the beloved rags in bags for the charities rag man).
I tried to sort my clothes out before and failed, so I hope this method works.
LikeLike
Great imagery – Love those hampers! I saved someone’s marriage once by advising them to get rid of the ironing basket which had become a major bone of contention between my colleague and her husband. She told me that my simple suggestion – just put the clothes away un-ironed – removed a constant source of argument from their relationship. Hahha – simple but true.. Thanks for sharing this fun poem about life..
LikeLike
Pingback: What does the (___) Say? Fill in the blank! – bakaloveblog
I wonder what our hampers would say if they could speak? “Hey so how was that little league game? Loottss of dirt stains! Did we win?” Or “There are tears on your shirt sleeves again. I know it hurts that she’s gone but your mom loves you fiercely, even after death.” Wow. The stories it could tell, right? 😉
LikeLike
I just love this, am currently reconstructing my wardrobe, and your poem took me back to my childhood immediately upon seeing the lovely pink wicker basket my ex mother in law had. Excellent imagery.
LikeLike
I know this is a fun poem, but seriously, are you sure you aren’t talking about the inside of my closet? Haha very relatable.
LikeLike
This photo brought me back to childhood and the hamper that sat at the end of the hall – it all seemed so modern at the time, lol.
LikeLike
Your poem matches the goings-on in my closet where my old brown plastic laundry basket lives. I have attempted to bring order out of chaos by hanging my clothes (temporarily at least) according to color.
LikeLike
My mother had one of those…..the height of fashion for dirty clothes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess everywhere people live or try to live what is shown in those hampers….Is this the best ?
Or so we fool ourselves. This poem is nuanced, I see layers deeper than the clothes….. especially the smells of last week , finite number of clothes in a closet ….are the kind of metaphors we grope to find ….this poem shows that fashion is not about elegance….it is about hiding a lack of it….and that makes this a brilliant poem !
LikeLike
Powerful imagery.
LikeLike
Gracious!!! I remember that hamper from somewhere in my life! And the story—
LikeLike
I went everywhere each line took me.
That’s the power of excellent writing, Elan!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think everyone’s mom had that hamper.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My fashion sense is already quite deconstructed, but I loved your poem. I think my mom had that hamper in the picture when I was little, it looks VERY familiar. 🙂
LikeLike
Sometimes, it’s that simple.
LikeLike
I’ve spent my whole live searching for the elusive butterfly of happiness. Turns out all I needed was a new, quilted, laundry box! Sally
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Seeking The Ultimate Mismatch – Ann WJ White
Reblogged this on Ann WJ White and commented:
This is a writer who writes of reality and has the same style I have. I love this.
LikeLike
Not so much as a hamper in my life-style as my life-style has become somewhat hampered as of late..;)
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a way of seeing in my hamper. I believe that you have spy glasses or a remote camera. This is refreshing. It’s nice to see someone who can write well about the little things. I’m rather tired of love poems. This is a nice change. Pressed it again!
LikeLiked by 1 person