O\u27Hara, Patricia

English

The Open Repository @Binghamton (The ORB)

Harpur Palate: a Literary Journal Volume 6 Issue 1 Article 31 June 2006 Winter Laundry Patricia O'Hara Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/harpurpalate Recommended Citation O'Hara, Patricia (2006) "Winter Laundry," Harpur Palate: a Literary Journal: Vol. 6: Iss. 1, Article 31. Available at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/harpurpalate/vol6/iss1/31 This Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Harpur Palate: a Literary Journal by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact ORB@binghamton.edu. WINTER LAUNDRY Patricia O 'Hara Perched in her second-floor kitchen window, Nana shakes, then pins, each piece on the taut, white line. Pin. Push. Pin. Push. The cold, wet weight first do the sheets then towels and last the clothes bowed the line (dip, swoon) toward the yard below. Inside the steam pipes mutter noisy heat, never enough to erase the thick, white ice that furred the windows. Mundane tableau: legs of trousers, upside-down shirrs, half slips wave, fanned by snow-cold air, and grow stiff. In the still, late afternoon she pulls, piece by piece, the laundry in. The iron's hiss on the pillowcase I press whispers light and puffs midday wind through the kitchen night. 118 1O'Hara: Winter LaundryPublished by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB), 2006

Winter Laundry

https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1312&context=harpurpalate

Winter Laundry

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