The Blurring of the Days
To Bill
Each night the clicking comes
of the small gecko on the wall
outside my front door. I hear it
as friendly and comforting. A mark
of the progress of my day, the hours
of my day, each day the same
sound at the same awaited time.
It takes me back to those days in Bali
with the loud clack of the huge
geckos in walls of straw,
strange yet amusing, reliable
backdrop to steamy nights …
at the same time as it grounds me
here and now. How the days slip by!
Written for Weekly Scribblings #48: Words of an Unprecedented Year, at Poets and Storytellers United. One of the words is Blursday, for days indistinguishable from each other. I have experienced some of this during the pandemic isolation – but that gecko, one of the things that gives my days sameness, took me somewhere else, to a different kind of blurring which is perhaps more common as we age.
I love how everyday sameness can take us to a different place, how interpretation and imagination are wonderful ways to keep from getting trap on the current blursdays. Thank goodness for geckos--and in my case, for birds--such wonderful gift.
ReplyDeleteWe chose the same prompt word, Rosemary. I love where it took you in this poem. What a lovely creature to have on your wall, and a friendly noise on those days when you don’t see another human. I’m so glad it takes you back to ‘steamy nights’.
ReplyDeleteI never used to have to check a calendar upon awakening to determine which day of the week it is... Maybe, if I lived near Geckoville, I could train one to click one way on Mondays, differently on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc., etc, though I suppose they're not all that easy to train. I could try, though; I've got lots of free time these days, eh?
ReplyDeleteYou've set my mind to wondering exactly what it is that keeps each day from blurring into the next. I realize it's you ... and everyone in my life like you ... it's poetry, prose, art, music, nature. It's how we process (but it might be fun to have a gecko or two.)
ReplyDeleteI love how complete this poem feels - like a well spent day
ReplyDeleteI didn't know real geckos clacked! Where I live "The" Gecko is an animated ad mascot. Our lizards don't do anything special, just bask in the sun and eat mosquitoes, but they're cute and harmless enough to have prepared people to like the TV-commercial gecko.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this very much. It brought back my own memories of geckos in a vacation apartment.
ReplyDeleteI so admire your ability to take the simplest of everyday things and turn them into lovely thoughts in prose.
ReplyDeleteI like where this went, and how the gecko could serve as a reminder that times were happy before and could be again.
ReplyDeleteThe sound of geckos, i hear a lot of, i find it irritating; but i do nothing about it, nor do i wish those creatures any ill will.
ReplyDeleteBird songs in the dawn i look forward to
Much💜love
We have so much to consideer from the past as we avoid contact with others. I was thinking only yesterday of visiting several pacific islands years ago with my wife and rubbing noses with some very attractive girls!
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely poem, a tribute to the geckos. I am glad that they are pumctual for you. And thank you, Rosemary, I didn't know that geck0s made noise. We swarm with them, generally two a week get into the house for me to send back outside, and one other will get caught in the back door mechanism. For the last two week the have been gone??
ReplyDeletea blurring ... a grounding. (Crickets and frogs croaking as the sun sets. That is so soothing to me) I loved this poem and to think it is here because of the awesome prompt. What a beautiful reflection of the present and the past.
ReplyDeleteSometimes sounds keep you grounded in the day and time. In this case a reliable gecko.
ReplyDelete