Emily Okaty Wilson lives in Michigan, where she spends her days as a stay-at-home mom and a part-time volunteer. Her work has been published at MomSense Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Mother of Preschooler’s Soul, and the Livingston Parent Journal. Visit her blog (featured twice on WordPress’s Freshly Pressed front page) to see more of her writing. This poem will make you think of summer and love no matter what season you’re in when you read it.
The Delicate Cycle
By Emily Okaty Wilson
Blue morning breath
breezes in a hurry,
tangles my hair as I take sun
dried laundry off the line;
bury my face in sapphire
striped sheets, the clean smell
tickles lungs, tingles
down to wiggly toes, almost
like the first time you kissed me.
You said I had the poutiest lips,
plump plum puckered and ready.
Laundry line quivers, windy
sheets ripple around me, like arms
clinging to my trembling body;
faded jeans fall past thick thighs,
knobby knees, brass buttons
on hardwood like the clink,
clink clank of loose change
hitting the walls of a metal
dryer, spinning hot
heavy breath burrowed beneath
sweaty hair stuck to the back
of my neck.
Your energy pounces quietly,
shakes me dizzy and out of breath
grasping soft cotton sheets.
I think amazing says it all. I’ll never look at laundry the same way.
Terrific work 🙂 especially loved that ending!
Ian, your word choice, aliteration, pace, line breaks, and unobtrusive rhyme make this poem powerful, indeed. Thank you!
Yes, I agree with the above comments!
Wonderful! Wow!