Sorting Laundry

Folding clothes,
I think of folding you
into my life.

Our king-sized sheets
like tablecloths
for the banquets of giants,

pillowcases, despite so many
washings, seams still
holding our dreams.

Towels patterned orange and green,
flowered pink and lavender,
gaudy, bought on sale,

reserved, we said, for the beach
refusing, even after years,
to bleach into respectability.

So many shirts and skirts and pants
recycling week after week, head over heels
recapitulating themselves.

All those wrinkles
to be smoothed, or else
ignored; they're in style.

Myriad uncoupled socks
which went to paired into the foam
like those creatures in the ark.

And what's shrunk
is tough to discard
even for Goodwill.

In pockets, surprises:
forgotten matches,
lost screws clinking on enamel;

paper clips, whatever they held
between shiny jaws, now
dissolved or clogging the drain;

well-washed dollars, legal tender
for all the debts public and private,
intact despite agitation;

and, gleaming in the maelstrom,
one bright dime,
broken necklace of good gold

you brought for Kuwait,
the strangely tailored shirt
left by a former lover. . . .

If you were to leave me,
if I were to fold
only my clothes,

the convexes and concaves
of my blouses, panties, stocking , bras
turned upon themselves,

a mountain of unsorted wash
could not fill
the empty side of the bed.

-Elisavietta Ritchie (b. 1932)


Laundry Help by ~SlayerWolf on deviantART

SlayerWolf. “Laundry Help.” 25 May 2007. Picture. DeviantART. 15 April 2009. http://slayerwolf.deviantart.com/art/Laundry-Help-56112412

Favorite Holiday

Blazing chunk of blocks in a basin
Crimson and bleached sweetmeat sticks
Sparkly coated timber
Glimmering glitter gazing outside
Chartreuse covered confection careless comforts
Boxes in their evening wear
Wire studded stars
Illumination fills the room

christmas by ~keijukaiset on deviantART
keijukaiset. "christmas." 20 December 2006. Picture. DeviantART. 15 April 2009. http://keijukaiset.deviantart.com/art/christmas-45048300

Shiny, Shiny, Shiny light

Shiny, shiny, shiny light
How I think of you each night
High above the big blue marble
Like a blaze in the dead nightfall
Shiny, shiny, shiny light
How I think of you each night

shiny by ~latv1a on deviantART

~latv1a. "Shiny." 4 August 2008. Picture. DeviantART. 14 April 2009. http://latv1a.deviantart.com/art/shiny-93769799