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Why I don't like to hang out washing
by Paganini JonesYou peg out clothes to dry
much like the cars you love to watch
race round a track
as if the speed were everything
and line and colour and design
just incidental to the final end.
You later, gather them
with creases sun-burned in,
the fabric stiff, unyielding
as your stance on peace.
You think not, care not
who later still will iron and fold.
You said it would not rain.
"It will not rain," you said
and so I hung our washing out
The cotton shirts you wear to work
your socks, my knickers,
skirts and other things.
This evening it rained.
I pulled each futile peg
so carefully placed
to hide the mark in seams,
then draped the lot
about the house to dry.
Fine summer rain
that drenches everything
yet no raindrops
mists on my skin
seeps through my will
and makes me cry.
Perhaps it would be easier
in the end
to buy new clothes? 07/30/2006 Posted on 10/08/2006
Copyright © 2025 Paganini Jones
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Dave Fitzgerald on 12/19/07 at 04:36 PM Well, I don't know why there hasn't been a comment here before, I think it portrays the pure frustration. (perhaps u should give it an explicit rating for mentioning your knickers ;) ) |
| Posted by Cathlyn Cartier on 12/19/07 at 04:50 PM I love how life inspires the written word.
Note to Santa, Pags needs a new dryer this year. |
| Posted by A. Paige White on 12/19/07 at 07:33 PM Guffaws at Dave's explicit recommendation
"with creases sun-burned in,
the fabric stiff, unyielding
as your stance on peace." was very good! It took the wash to a whole new level. I love the smell of line dried clothes... oh my! I could actually have a line now! I have no dogs in my backyard anymore...
Paige's note to Santa, can I have a clothesline like Pags? Pwetty pwease?!?
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| Posted by Meghan Helmich on 12/19/07 at 09:07 PM this is lovely! it makes me sleepy with the warm sunshine imagery. and i love love love clothes on the line. it's a perfect image for so many things.
i can't believe no one commented on this before your bulletin. |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 12/20/07 at 02:33 AM I can smell the clothes drying! Nothing like drying in the good outdoor air! Quite descriptive with feeling! A poem from any subject proof positive! (By the way if taken down and put in the dryer for a few minutes on "damp dry" it will take that stiffness out!) |
| Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 12/20/07 at 04:35 PM There's a dark, tender undertone to this I feel, unsaid. The "makes me cry"... and the "you think not care not", "perhaps it would be easier to buy new clothes" all hint toward a metaphor, and makes me wonder about the "you" (the other) in this poem and about the feelings of the speaker.... and about the "rain". Words hung with such a sense of color relationship here. |
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