Today a windy Monday, <br />brisk, businesslike north wind, <br />I would make a great altar <br />and pile it high as heaven <br />with washing straight off the line <br />shirts like roly-poly hunchback <br />astronauts like human kites <br />a sharp flapping of hemmed edges <br />the squawk of hens surprised <br />laundry baskets full of the smell <br />of Spring and freshness and new beginnings <br />laundry baskets that smell as if <br />a walk along the shores of love <br /> <br />all Your wind and air and water, and <br />sunlight soap, soapy sunlight making <br />iridescent bubbles in the washtub <br />the squeak of the mangle, <br />dripping into the sink <br />stained heavenly with Dolly Blue <br />the smell of love and motherhood <br />the hot iron’s steamy smell <br />the starch, the sharp warm ironed piles <br />ready for the cupboard shelves <br /> <br />and say, look everyone <br />this is a woman’s lifetime of unspoken love <br />see it made of the holy elements themselves <br />as on the first day of Creation <br />that is ever a woman’s life <br /> <br />men, worship this<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/today-a-windy-monday/
