Mid-Century Modern (circa 1952 or 3)

Flushing blushing silly thoughts

(or The True Mid-Century Modern)

🚽

As I watched a wiped white wad

Of soft silky toilet tissue

Swirling swimming sinking down

The white fixed potty throat

I wonder of the history of humankind

And what they did used to wipe their butts

Before this soft paper on a roll

& porcelain flushing pots to sit upon?

Oh, yes some of us remember

Old Spiegel catalogues

beside those wooden holes

before indoor luxurious bathrooms

where the latest fashion decree

for indeed our outhouses were just that

usually with two holes

I do not ever recall

partnering to take a poo

maybe my sisters did

as girls seem to have a bond

boys only do when standing up

not in but outside like every burly man

Did the ancients use their hands

wash, wipe them in puddle, stream or river

where they did a cleansing ritual

or did they use the nearest leaf

or frond green or autumn crisp brown?

Ah, such a mystery our past we like the animals

Just naturally gifted to dispose

to cleanly from our ass?

well this did happen in our house right before I entered 1st Grade (in '1952-3)

(Photo: Tommy, playing kazoo, behind us, Me, Gerald, Mary Lou, & Buddy

both Buddy and Tommy two of the best friends we all shared

have passed into the spiritual beyond, loved by so man for the gifts

they gave with full hearts and souls. I do believe they'd give a chuckle

or guffaw reading this, it is not meant as any sort of disrespect.)

paper cutting glass 2