kitchenette building  By Gwendolyn Brooks 1917–2000 Gwendolyn
Brooks We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,  But
could a dream send up through onion fumes    Its white and
violet, fight with fried potatoes    And yesterday’s garbage
ripening in the hall,    Flutter, or sing an aria down these
rooms  Even if we were willing to let it in, Had time to warm
it, keep it very clean,    Anticipate a message, let it begin?
We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!    Since Number Five
is out of the bathroom now,    We think of lukewarm water, hope
to get in it.   Source: Selected Poems (Harper & Row, 1963)
Also available as an audio poem.   Poet Gwendolyn Brooks
1917–2000  Subjects Home Life, Social Commentaries, Money &
Economics, Relationships  Poetic Terms Sonnet  Report a problem
with this poem  Gwendolyn Brooks: “kitchenette building”  The
Chicago poet transports readers into a dream deferred.  By
Hannah Brooks-Motl  Gwendolyn Brooks grew up on Chicago’s South
Side in a house her father bought s