Sheri Grutz: The Women's Restroom

Our first poem is from the small town Iowa poet, Sheri Grutz. She is the author of a full collection of poems: This Sky I Know. This new poem shows how, at least to me, that the unexpected places and situations can serve as an inspiration or muse. She wrote many of her poems that appear in her collection in the women's restroom of a glass factory.

The Women’s Restroom

The tile half way up the wall is like
Chicklet gum; the kind the bank used
to give out, in little green boxes to
match the bills.

It’s a Saturday morning
and there are 2 stalls like drive through
lanes at the bank Both smell like rust.
Both smell like paper. I need this money.
I need this routine.

Something has robbed
me of my energies and taken out what’s
vaulted: the ceilings, the birds, the windows
of my world of poetry.

And when I’m this
depleted, that is when I rise with a message
for the world. That you can’t have me for
long. You will be caught.

Sure as its written
in stone that this is the place we refresh,
we bleed, we primp; this is the place I
sit and write a note to be saved.

Sure as
this is the place I sweep, I mop, I disinfect,
mimicking them cleaning my clock, and
finding words that help.

Sure as this is
the only place on earth where I can be me
and wait to be free. This is the only place
on earth where men are not allowed.