Wallpapering by Sue Ellen Thompson : American Life in Poetry

The Poetry Foundation

Library of Congress

University of Nebraska
at Lincoln

American Life in Poetry: Column 109

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

One big test of the endurance of any relationship is taking on a joint improvement project. Here Sue Ellen Thompson offers an account of one such trial by fire.

Wallpapering

My parents argued over wallpaper. Would stripes

make the room look larger? He

would measure, cut, and paste; she’d swipe

the flaws out with her brush. Once it was properly

hung, doubt would set in. Would the floral

have been a better choice? Then it would grow

until she was certain: it had to go. Divorce

terrified me as a child. I didn’t know

what led to it, but I had my suspicions.

The stripes came down. Up went

the flowers. Eventually it became my definition

of marriage: bad choices, arguments

whose victors time refused to tell,

but everything done together and done well.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted by permission of the author. Copyright © 2006 by Sue Ellen Thompson, from her book, The Golden Hour, published by Autumn House Press. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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