All the Things That are Mundane - a Poem About the Unpoetic
Drinking a glass of water
Seeing the snow glisten under the streetlights
Feeling the curls of my kinks bounce
Being able to scratch an itch
Letting out a good fart
Cracking my knuckles
The creaminess of my shea butter
Blinking
Biting off a frayed cuticle with my teeth
Peeing from a full bladder
Writing my heart out after a long day into my pink journal
A wide, wide yawn
Folding into a child’s pose during my morning yoga
Dislodging a piece of meat stuck between my teeth
Wearing my fuzzy socks in my cold basement room
Cutting the call of a spam caller
The embroidered rose on my pink journal
Being able to hear the constant hum of my mini-fridge
Feet that hold my body up and keep me moving
Succumbing to the seduction of sleep
Plush blankets, plush robes, plush pyjamas, anything plush
Being able to read this poem
Waking up to my family awakened
Erasers
The light that turns on when I flip the switch
The phone battery that stays on long enough to send that gif
My dad’s jokes
The solid ground that carries each and every one of us
All the things that are mundane are all the blessings that I count
I write this to bring attention to the things that are so commonplace that they become overlooked and invisible
Because of that, I want to wax poetic about the unpoetic, mundane things.
This is My Story
I am Ọlákìítán. A woman of Yorùbá descent. I am most interested in knowledge, and my most compelling curiosity right now is my potential. That's why I joined JAYU’s iAM poetry class. I used to write creatively, and then I stopped for a while, so this was a way for me to rediscover that side of myself. I find writing to be a potent medium, and perhaps as I discover more of my potential, one day I might live up to my daydreams of being that ethereal poetess on stage who gifts her words to those who shall receive it.
I don't remember too well what inspired this piece. I think it might have been a prompt during one of the JAYU poetry sessions where we were asked to write a letter to someone who we're really thankful for. I did write that letter, but I also thought about the many other things that fill me with so much gratitude, and those things are often the small things. So, really this poem is an exercise of counting my blessings, and my hope is that as you read it, it allows you to take stock of the many blessings in your life too.