Poetry Friday: Poetry Pairings...from the New York Times

Poetry Friday is hosted by Tabatha at http://www.tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/ today.

I've posted about the "Poetry Pairings" section of  Times' Learning Network before.  I find that whoever puts this together has an uncanny ability to extend a poem with a newsworthy piece of writing - a biographical sketch, a slice of history, or something totally unusual but so appropriate.  Thursday's selection was another remarkable pairing.  I loved the poem by Christopher Todd Matthews for its breathtaking attention to detail - each movement noted and captured just right:

Window Washer
By Christopher Todd Matthews

One hand slops suds on, one
hustles them down like a blind.
Brusque noon glare, filtered thus,
loosens and glows. For five or
six minutes he owns the place,
dismal coffee bar, and us, its
huddled underemployed. A blade,
black line against the topmost glass,

begins, slices off the outer lather,
flings it away, works inward,
corrals the frothy middle, and carves,
with quick cuts, the stuff down,
not looking for anything, beneath
or inside. Homes to the last,
cleans its edges, grooms it for
the end, then shaves it off

and flings it away. Which is
splendid, and merciless. And all
in the wrist. Then, he looks at us.
We makers of filth, we splashers
and spitters. We sitters and watchers.
Who like to see him work.
Who love it when he leaves
and gives it back: our grim hideout,
half spoiled by clarity.

You can view the haunting photograph and essay that accompanies it here: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/poetry-pairing-april-28-2011/?partner=rss&emc=rss.  I don't think I'll ever view a window washer in quite the same quotidian way again.