Woman at Clothes Line

Strapped sandals lift the lady
above the lawn. Hung linens adopt her
hippy contours. This is no steamy

Tide commercial. Our star is absorbed
in cooler, wetter realities. She wears
a blue dress, white scarf. Her mouth

twitches wryly into some future. What
rustles toward her through the October
yard? Consider recklessness, how it breeds

in safe places. Was laundry ever just
a chore? Hold a rinsed blouse to your
face. Gaze through its weave at the gauzy

world. Notice how whiteness drinks itself
blue, agitates the fallen red
leaves. Those blankets have been under

your skin. They have things to tell you—
grey, woolly things. She lugs them out
to air their moth-eaten souls. How

gracefully she hoists her basket, all her
disappointments. It’s clear from her eyes, the absence
of pins. Nothing here will blow away.

from Out to Dry in Cape Breton, Véhicule Press, 2006