Day Two: Dream house + Thursday Doors 2/4/20

• Manja Maksimovič

I knew immediately which house I wished to write about. But then I remembered that it was Thursday and Thursday spells doors. This is how I solved the matter.

.

D

o

o

o

o

r

s

.

Prompt 2: “Write a poem about a specific place — a particular house or store or school or office. Try to incorporate concrete details”…

Dream house

“Are you nuts?
On a lagoon?
What about the mold
and the high tide,
the mosquitoes
and the smell,
musty rotten lagoon smell?
Blue Lagoon this isn’t!
What is its address,
Lagoon 1?”

“But look, mama,
look how its red
goes with the greens.
Now imagine it with pink.
Flamingos come
when winter nears.”

“Have you looked at it
on Google maps?
Only factories around!
It’s in the middle of nowhere,
the only part of Italy
with no highway!”

“Correct, dad,
maybe because
it’s a nature reserve.
A WWF Oasis, no less.
They are fighting
to keep the highway away.
Oh, and fattoria
means farm.”

“But have you looked at the door
of your dream house?
Much is to be learned
about the house from its door.”

I think of all the doors
that I have looked at,
photographed,
and posted on Thursdays
in the last five years.

I fall silent.

The thing is,
they are right.
I haven’t.

A few notes:

  • I’m a non-fiction addict but this poem has been mightily fictionilised (fictionised? fictioned?). This house has never even been on sale. I just like it and declare to every visitor that it’s my dream house.
  • It’s true: I have never paid attention to its doors. It’s a rare house where it doesn’t matter. It’s also true that I have been posting doors on Thursdays for almost five years. The gallery includes four doors from the town Orbetello which the house faces across the lagoon.
  • Norm, our ready steady Thursday Doors host, might remember one of them in person from when he was here. I did a turn with my car especially for the reason of showing it to him. In his today’s post he remembers this visit with some lovely San Galgano Abbey doors. It feels like a lifetime away.
  • Before April started, I’d said to myself that I would post no more than three photos with each poem. Okay, five. It’s day two and we are on seven already. Still far from usual proverbial twenty.
  • On my first visit in september 2012. I asked amore to stop the car so that I could take some photos. The way how he did it, immediately and without tsssking, made it easier to move here next April. Not into this house.
  • Winter two years ago.
  • The flamingos hang out in the other parts of the lagoon.
  • This is the door that deserved a drive-by.
  • This gives an impression of a modern town. It’s wrong.
  • Old glory.
  • The personal favourite. #13 and all.

For Day 2 of NaPoWriMo 2020

and

for Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors challenge

47 thoughts on “Day Two: Dream house + Thursday Doors 2/4/20”

  6. Dream houses for sure! that green door <3<3 And that first house with that staircase….such staircases have always fascinated me…I love these outdoor ones. Beautiful photos and what can i say about the poem…you are so super talented and with that kind soul and awesome smile…are you even real? <3<3<3<3 So much love your way!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Thanks, Manja. If I was any good at writing romance novels, it would naturally involve a Single lady and her young son inheriting their dead Grandma’s house. They attempt to renovate it into their dream Italian villa on the lake, but need help from a local handyman. Can you finish the story synopsis for me?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Ah yes, Bird watcher, of course, Manja. He is an older debonair Gentlemen wearing a kravat and safari hat. Greying moustache. Rich and slightly eccentric, no doubt. What is he doing in Italy, though?

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Oh, how I love your dream house, Manja! I recognize it – and I know I posted a house here in Sweden that is almost a lookalike. But – there is no lagooooooon! Ah – and your poem is delightful.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  15. Happy to go on lockdown in that house right now. There are some ah so awesome turn of the century houses in Italy that make me drool so much! I bet this one has stair steps made of single slabs of stone…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Fabrizio. Oh, so that’s what this style is, turn of the century? I’ve seen those stocky square lone houses in the middle of flat fields often on my way to Slovenia. Which suddenly feels on the other side of the world. I’ll catch up with your Decameron sooner or later. I think I might be saving it like a dessert.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  17. Hmmm, it’s very very pretty — unique location, too. I can imagine you there. Of course, I have come to visit in the winter. We eat cake and we drink Turkish coffee and oh how we laugh. But we stop to sigh at the beauty of your view.
    I don’t have a dream house, but when I do, I hope The Mister will pull over kindly so that I may take a photo.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  18. Pingback: Day Two & PPAC: Forma Viva 3. – An Embarrassment of Riches

Leave a reply to Leya Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.