This is a re-post for dVerse poet’s pub’s Open Link Night
I wake to muffled landscape;
fog blindfolds my view.
Floating treetop islands
appear above the mist.
A tiny hint of sunlight
beams onto the lawn,
promise of a better day.
Do I, don’t I, should I
hang the laundry out?
The line is a thread of
pendulous moisture.
Tap sharply, spoil the pattern,
the beads plunge,
flicker in half-hearted sun.
Shirts doing handstands
wait in hope of a lusty puff.
A breath from the West
wafts more than fabric.
Wisps of mist at last dispelled,
the cold, grey morning
morphs into bright day.
Love the shirts doing handstands, Viv!
Love how you have made laundry so poetically beautiful!
Anna
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flicker in half-hearted sun ! Fun
Every line here paints an almost photographic image–shirts doing handstands–just perfect. I still hang out the bedding and big items for that incomparable smell–but I am far from the city and the stink of exhaust fumes. Enjoyed this, viv.
Lovely….love line dried laundry.
I remember this one. That last verse is marvellous. Love the image of the shirt.
A scene beautifully described.
I just love this! Such a vivid recreation of the external and internal, I felt as if I was you in those moments.
We don’t hang laundry much in America, in part because the cities impart a bitter aftersmell on the clothes. I used to love to press my face into just-off-the-line washing when I was little. Thanks for this, Viv, the images of fog and then the sun breaking through. Peace, Amy
http://sharplittlepencil.com/2012/10/02/slp-is-back-creative-juices/
Maybe that’s why I don’t live in a city? The car culture leads to pollution, leads to use of energy guzzling electric driers leading to more pollution. Yet in a city it’s often easier and quicker and cheaper to walk!
Line drying is disappearing in America. Suburban neighborhoods have outlawed lines, and for all I know cities have too. It was always less than fresh when pulley strung between buildings. We’re automatically machine dried and fluffed now; or delicates hand-washed, laid on towels over shower curtains. I loved linens in my youth – line dried, lavendered, and ironed smooth – crawling in between fresh sheets having bathed and put on clean ‘jammies.
Why would suburbs outlaw clotheslines??? Is local government in the pockets of the drier manufacturers? More wasteful energy use, bad for the environmnt! And there is nothing like getting the sunshine into the clothes.
If not on the line outside, my laundry is dried on a rack under the carport, or in the guest bathroom. I vowed never to use electricity just to dry clothes!
Well done Mum. The cage round the chimney in Fraser’s room did a good job of drying our washing last night. We can’t use the drier you bought us when Fraser was born as the electricity to the garage needs fixing after our building work. I would have hung out the washing but I wasn’t in and we had showers forecast.
I have a gadget you could hook on to the cage. It has an arm that takes about 5 clothes hangers. I use that on the towel rail. I’ll give it to you when you come.
I have one already thanks – I did have 2.
it has been really foggy here this last week…so thick this morning you could hardly see to drink between it and the rain….would probably wait to hang later…but i love line dried laundry…the fresh smell…mmm
Isn’t it great when that happens? LOL