{"id":1484,"date":"2012-11-30T03:53:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T03:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2017-07-11T17:30:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T17:30:10","slug":"refinishing-the-round-oak-table-by-william-doreski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/refinishing-the-round-oak-table-by-william-doreski\/","title":{"rendered":"Refinishing the Round Oak Table by William Doreski"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/william-doreski.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1485 lazyload\" title=\"william-doreski\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/william-doreski.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"175\" height=\"248\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 175px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 175\/248;\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Refinishing the Round Oak Table<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">by William Doreski<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Refinishing the round oak table<br \/>\nrefinished twenty years ago<br \/>\nI stroke the grain so gently<br \/>\nthe pattern gets under my skin.<br \/>\nOnce inside me it elaborates<\/p>\n<p>in shades only painters delicate<br \/>\nas Vermeer can catch. Others<br \/>\nmight render it as crudely<br \/>\nas Freud&#8217;s sexual fantasies,<br \/>\ncrosscutting feathery chevrons<\/p>\n<p>and roughing minutely the surface.<br \/>\nI plaster chemical stripper<br \/>\nonto lathe-turned legs and wait<br \/>\nwhile it loosens finish I applied<br \/>\nwhen young enough to taste and smell<\/p>\n<p>these chemicals with a pleasure<br \/>\nonly reckless young men enjoy.<br \/>\nNow they alienate mucus membranes<br \/>\nand pucker the backs of my hands.<br \/>\nWhile the slather works I wash<\/p>\n<p>and rub lotion into my wounds.<br \/>\nHow sad. I yank on latex gloves<br \/>\nand return to work. With paper towels<br \/>\nI remove the stripper and expose<br \/>\nraw oak as the acorn made it.<\/p>\n<p>Repeat and repeat till the table<br \/>\ngleams naked as adolescence.<br \/>\nNow a matte natural finish<br \/>\nbrushed on so neatly not one<br \/>\ndrip troubles even the complex<\/p>\n<p>turning of the legs. If I live<br \/>\nanother twenty years I&#8217;ll redo<br \/>\nthis table again, resolving<br \/>\nall the sexual metaphors<br \/>\nthat have lingered beyond their use.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n<p>William Doreski teaches at Keene State College in New Hampshire. His most recent books of poetry are City of Palms and June Snow Dance, both 2012. He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell&#8217;s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals, including <em>Massachusetts Review, Atlanta Review, Notre Dame Review, The Alembic, New England Quarterly, Worcester Review, Harvard Review, Modern Philology, Antioch Review<\/em>, and <em>Natural Bridge.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Refinishing the round oak table<br \/>\nrefinished twenty years ago<br \/>\nI stroke the grain so gently<br \/>\nthe pattern gets under my skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}