The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Vertical~ By Martha Clarkson

10/14/2016

0 Comments

 
She bought a condo on the top floor. To be anywhere else in a building meant hearing footsteps. Footsteps creaked the 2 x 4s, thumped when dancing. A bass speaker on the floor could shake the cottage cheese from a ceiling. A guy moved in below her and sanded the hardwood floors at night for weeks on end. She used Day-Glo pink ear plugs, leftover from a White Stripe concert, to sleep at night.
​
When the sanding was over, all was quiet, but the notes started to appear on her door, as if he’d never used a power tool in the building. You make a lot of noise at night, walking around, the first note said. It was written on a Farmville post-it. The note was hard to form a reply to. There was no question to answer. And she didn’t walk around at night much, her shift ending at nine, her body ready for bed. Is there a need to move chairs and couches when you get home from work? the next one said. She wasn’t moving furniture. The condo was so small there was no place to move furniture to. A week later: I can hear you chop celery. This made her laugh, because she was allergic to celery. She swept the kitchen floor and let the broom handle go a few times, telling herself it slipped.


Author Bio:
Martha Clarkson manages corporate workplace design in Seattle. Her poetry, photography, and fiction can be found in monkeybicycle, Clackamas Literary Review, Seattle Review, Alimentum, Hawaii Pacific Reivew. She is a recipient of a Pushcart Nomination, and is listed under “Notable Stories,” Best American Non-Required Reading for 2007 and 2009. She is recipient of best short story, 2012, Anderbo/Open City prize, for “Her Voices, Her Room.”
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org