Kitchenette Building
Kitchenette Building - meaning Summary
Dreams Stifled by Squalor
Brooks depicts residents of a cramped kitchenette building whose hopes and imagination are smothered by daily necessities and filth. The poem contrasts fragile yearning with the hard demands of rent, feeding a family, and kitchen odors that make aspiration impractical. Its tone is weary and ironic: the speaker acknowledges longing but concludes that practical survival—lukewarm water and basic routines—overwhelms the possibility of transcendence or sustained dream life.
Read Complete AnalysesWe are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" mate, a giddy sound, not strong Like "rent", "feeding a wife", "satisfying a man". But could a dream sent 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.
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