catalog poem

Things she does while waiting for the police by: Sera O.

Checks her email
Listens to bad reggae muffled through the floor
Reads the pink note again
Pets the cat
Writes a list of things to do today -- Top of the list: wait for police
then: buy hair gel
send back the netflix
feed the aunts cats
write down work schedule
laundry
buy plant stakes, rose food

stares at a cabinet of liquor
stares at the plastic skull in the cabinet of liquor
looks out the window
considers things to do:
read
rearrange the furniture
weed the dandelions out of the yard-- would it be weird to greet the police with a long spade in hand?

then:
restarts computer
cleans out the car
listens to the downstairs neighbor do more laundry -- thinks that for someone who always wanders around in a towel or hot pants at the most, she has a lot of laundry to do.
Listens to the downstairs neighbor watch COPS
Listens to the phone ring, wonders if she should answer it
Calls her friend and leaves a message
Looks out the window and sees a downstairs neighbor, dressed this time, smoking a cigarette, talking on her cell phone, pacing from the front yard, down the side of the house, to the back door, back up the side of the house...
Smells them cooking bacon, again.
Goes into the bathroom -- feels like she is hiding
Drinks a glass of water from the kitchen
Stares out of the window
Thinks of all the things she could be doing, and is not while waiting for the police

and then:
Watches as the two downstairs neighbors, one in hot pants, smoking a cigarette, the other, pants hanging below his underwear, holding a beer, meet the police at the gate and shake their heads, no, they didn't call.
goes to the door to clarify that she was the one who called.

I found this poem to be very interesting because it gave attention to the very mundane things a person does but the narrator only calls attention upon it because they are waiting for the police. One thing can be explained from this poem, through the list of things that were being done, one can see that the neighborhood may probably not that maintained since the police takes so come. In addition, the way that the narrator describes her neighbors in the course of explain what he/she is doing while waiting for the police demonstrates the atmosphere that they are in as well. Overall, I think catalog poems are a great way to explain minute in such an extravagant way that it calls attention to things that people may not observe since they are considered so normal in society; however, those little things can tell a lot about a person as well.