This was so long ago they had
not been together much before
they married. She had not been poor,
but lived with ‘rents and sibs instead
of at the noisy dorms at school.

He was an RA in the first
year dorm for men–a small closet,
the bathroom was clear

Their first apartment seemed quite huge
to him: one wall, a kitchen–two
windows, a bed, a desk, a loo
right here behind that door… The rage

she felt was not at him, nor at
the smallness of the space, but dirt
was everywhere. They could not rest
until they cleaned this pit, her nest.

Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, insanely happy after all these years.
[Our first year was in a tiny one room efficiency]