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      May 13, 2019A Housekeeper’s VillanelleMaggie Rue Hess

      I learned the beauty of futility, and now I know its sorrow
      from cleaning rooms at the Holiday Inn;
      what you tidy today will need you again tomorrow.
      There’s a satisfaction in work whose effort you can show,
      soothing to proper corners what is chaos when you begin.
      I learned the beauty of futility, and now I know its sorrow,
      because there is no end to the process. You must borrow
      time, must accept that the struggle is the win:
      what you tidy today will need you again tomorrow.
      Is it never done? How do you live when you must go
      through the same back-bending motions day out and day in?
      I learned the beauty of futility, and now I know its sorrow.
      Remember that it’s not just about hotel rooms, though;
      it’s just as true for hate, failure, pain, or sin.
      What you tidy today will need you again tomorrow.
      The good work never sleeps: a housekeeper would know.
      We clock in and clean up again and again.
      And I—I’ve learned the beauty of futility as well as its sorrow—
      what I tidy today will need me again tomorrow.

      from #63 - Spring 2019

      Maggie Rue Hess

      “More often do I imagine other perspectives than try to write out of them. Others tend to guide me in their directions, like Mary Oliver or my old co-workers. What is tied to our deepest sense of self? Is it our daily work? I spent a summer cleaning hotel rooms, and while I enjoyed the job, I didn’t keep it; what I kept was a respect for those who made a career out of providing comfort for strangers.”

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