Let Memory Be a Paneled Room
Let us now be gracious
and thank our humble homes.
From shag carpet we arose;
the ugly couch was always
more comfortable before
it was reupholstered,
made more acceptable
to our changing eyes. Let us
now love Linoleum, warm
underfoot, forgiving of stains,
those accidents of carelessness
and time. How the years passed.
Let memory be a paneled room
with heavy curtains. Let it keep
every word we ever spoke.
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
let it keep every word that we spoke…that is very cool…and couches are always better when broke in…right before we replace them…ha….neat verse…
Thanks, Brian!
I so enjoy the detailed attention this poem pays to our home-spaces. I love the mythic dimensions of “From shag carpet we arose” and the exhortative repetitions of “Let us”–these give the poem an appreciative gravity. Brava!
Thank you! I wanted to bring some dignity and weight to these questionable home furnishings.
I like to think that something of us is left in the places we live… like memories in a paneled room, cosy with those heavy curtains. I really like this!
Times change and we remember the funny furnishings of our earlier times..and the comforts. My shag carpets are gone, but I still inhabit primarily that central paneled room that provide memories of bringing up a family.
My dad’s house has a paneled living room, and he and my mom always wondered whether to take it down, paint it, or what. It’s cozy, though! They put in lighter colored carpet and I think it helped brighten things up. In a house we lived in previously, I had pink shag in my room. 🙂
So true about the old couches and forgiving floorcoverings… Lovely
Thanks, Holly Anne! Ceramic floors (though lovely) are cold and break everything that falls on them. We have “ceramic-look” vinyl tile, which is not my favorite (didn’t choose it myself), but plates can — and do — fall out of the cabinets with no harm done.
it’s like you’ve captured time and kept it within a four-walled box. 🙂 love the last two lines especially.
Thanks, Joanna!
This is SUCH a cool poem. And the ending was like a movie scene from a childhood book long forgotten. Lovely, thank you!
Thanks, Jannie!