The Big Apple

[Event] Philips obsessed with sound (Photo credit: PitsLamp photography)

 

In this city, this congested, smoky city, one has two options.  One can either live with the rot, the filth, the pathogens and the deterioration or one can simply clean the rot. There is one clear option for me – CLEAN!

Cleaning could bring order to this grime-filled, rat infested, germ-crawling , fog-choking city – The Big Apple. The maggot-filled, gangrene coloured, worm-festering Apple.

Every time I look on the street on my way to work, it’s there, festering, growling, lurking, mocking and sticking onto every passerby. They are the germs, the pathogens, the dust, the mould, the rotting diaper and dog crap. All is there, sitting, hiding in the dumpsters of the streets. Everywhere one steps, it sticks. Sometimes I wish to stop and pick every bacterium off the bottom of my shoe, the hairs of my coat and my actual skin.

I loathe it – the germs, the bacteria, the dirt, the oil hanging loosely in the air being sucked into my clean lungs and my body. I loathe its trickery, it mocks me. I walk fast from work and I remove every item of clothing and wash it in disinfectant. I must! Allowing them to harvest eggs onto my clothes and my body sickens me, annoys me and makes me desire to regurgitate.  I dip into the bathtub and my mantra awakens: scrub and clean, scrub and clean, scrub and clean, clean and scrub! I know that when I’m fully cleansed, my skin will feel wonderfully sore. I must quickly remove myself from the bath for the germs will return, they always know their host!

I get dressed and scrub the entire apartment clean. Beauty is a price paid daily and cleaning the house is no exception. I clean the house till it’s spotless, then clean again in disinfectant. I must clean it or the germs will wreak havoc on my world!  They are disgusting and must be fully annihilated. Germs kill two million Americans a year. I cannot be killed. I cannot be killed. I cannot be a breeding ground for the parasites of the invisible world. I must fight, even though my husband had allowed himself to be taken over by the dust and the grime of The Apple, I cannot.

I am at war with the germs every day. I am at times fearful, cowardly, but I must always remember that cleaning brings a peaceful rest at night and that life is already too short to allow myself to be taken over by the two billion types of bacteria and scum. I must fight this good fight; buying and using all the Clorox, Lysol and Ajax I can get in. I must scrub the counters, the sinks, vacuum the carpet. I must clean the windows; wash the clothes, the sheets, the bedspreads until they are at peace because the germs have retreated.

I read the paper today, after covering my hands in gloves to avoid any new breed of bacteria from the print shop. I read that the human lips has at least one million strains of bacteria and the human skin for every cubic centimetre has at least four million bacteria and dust particles.  I was appalled, and my effort felt dejected. For all the powerful cleaning I have done, especially in the bodily area, were all in vain. Bacteria have festered and will fluster wherever humans live, wherever humans trample and sought to form a new variety in their gene pool. But what will I do now? Will I become another subject of the king virus or king dust-bunny?! Will I become like other humans who accept the germs as they are and sought to live with them, like them?!  Must I now stoop and live at their level of disorder and chaos?! I will certainly not! I will certainly not! I will certainly not! I will improve my efforts; man more of my battle stations with more disinfectants. Either that or die trying! And if I am forced to live in a bubble - a germ free bubble, I will do so with bells on my feet and a grin and taunt at the germs themselves. I will not be subject to new authority! I will certainly not!

Related articles

• Dispelling the Myths of Green Cleaning (greenne.com)
• An Antibacterial Cleaning Solution That Is Eco Friendly Too (daimerindustries.typepad.com)
• The average kitchen sink harbors more germs than a toilet (greenreview.blogspot.com)
• How Cleaning Green Can Improve Your Life (newfrontierslifecoaching.wordpress.com)
• Surprising Places Germs Can Hide (everydayhealth.com)

Monday Features

I’m in love with words.

Every writer adds essence and character to a piece.  I have met writers who add revolution and a striking need to be wiser, better, more human with just words.  I wanted to start featuring writers I admire: whether up and coming or already established on the Poetry front. Maybe I’ll through in a little Plath every now and again *sullen smile*

People forget there is so much difficulty articulating the human condition into print. From E.M. Forster to V.S. Naipaul, literature is an art, and a compelling challenge.

So here is my first writer: Hezron Henry

Restoration: A Tarnished Jewel

There was once a woman who felt so vulnerable

That she felt she needed to build walls impenetrable

‘Cause men before have used and abused

A treasure…

This treasure of such great magnitude would be priceless in any sheik’s harem

That would be the diamond encrusted crown of pure and un-matchless gold on any king’s brow

A treasure that would turn any frowns upside down

In a world full of maybes

She “would be” that “can be” in a man’s life

She said she can be the sanity in his world of insanity

She would be his trust in a world of “In God We Trust”…but just can’t say the Lord’s Prayer in an institution of education

And while we’re all slaves to our impulses

She admits she’s not perfect

But yet still a treasure

Offering pleasure

Pleasure not only of the passions of one’s carnal desires

But also of spiritual and mental upliftment

Togetherness …

Well…that’s all she’s after…

Now I know your body is frail

And men have the audacity to call it a temple

But yet still refused to be baptised

But right now I wanna worship in your temple

Baptise me

Convert me at the altar of your soul

As I behold the light at the end of your tunnel

Got me 1 step closer to heaven

And I know that men have tried to GET into you

Bu I’m just trying be into YOU

So when we’re done I can reverse and take that time to converse

And expose our naked souls on the linen of ecstasy

Under the cover of a warm caress

Because you have chosen to bless me with your presence

And more even so….your essence

I want us intertwined

And braided like my hair

Meaning I want us to grow

Meaning I want you to stay…

In reference to what Lupe say

So if I cud speak into your soul until it becomes whole

Inspire me to do the impossible till I’m centuries old

And if two alternate realities were to collapse under our touch

Would you risk it all for 1 second’s rush

Or live a lifetime without

So I wanna voice my concern

For many brothers don’t wanna get burned

So if I step back and act all thuggish, ruggish and bad to the bone

Like a rapper without ice

Flossing words

Valuable enough to bribe a prostitute‘s panties off

Don’t worry…..

You got me

You got me

The Proust Questionnaire

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Sitting on a beach somewhere

2. What is your greatest fear? Failure

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My obsessive tendencies

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Rudeness

5. Which living person do you most admire? My father

6. What is your greatest extravagance? Procrastination

7. What is your current state of mind? Troubled

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Kindness

9. On what occasion do you lie? Most Panicked

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Almost everything

11. Which living person do you most despise? A co-worker

12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Intellect

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Humour

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Cool Beans

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Who?- doesn’t matter they’re  nothing to me. What?- any novel

16. When and where were you happiest? Age 8 running in the grass with my sister

17. Which talent would you most like to have? Dancing

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would ask to be taller.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Reading

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A monument

21. Where would you most like to live? Brazil

22. What is your most treasured possession? My piercings

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Constant wallowing in self-pity

24. What is your favourite occupation? Writing

25. What is your most marked characteristic? Sarcasm

26. What do you most value in your friends? Their candour

27. Who are your favourite writers? Zadie Smith, Edwidge Danticat, Monique Roffey, Rohinton Mistry

28. Who is your hero of fiction? The little boy in the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?  Frida Kahlo

30. Who are your heroes in real life? My Parents, My Uncles

31. What are your favourite names? Sophia, Michael, Malcolm, Emma

32. What is it that you most dislike? Too trusting

33. What is your greatest regret? My last 2 relationships & a few friendships

34. How would you like to die? Loved & in a morphine induced state

35. What is your motto? Learn to be kinder to yourself, M.