Keeping House


Everyone is long gone, so these days
laundry days are infrequent.
I wait on a basement step. 
The dryer ticks and cools while I fold,
my warm shirts stir the musty air–

A rush in the pipes startles the silence.
"Hello?" I ask the joists.
Have I forgotten I have a family upstairs
scrubbing boots, drawing baths,
blotting blood from knees, from pants?

But the dog naps knowing no one is there.
It is only the dishwasher cycle
that has sent the ghosts of children and men
running through the walls.


 – Teresa Kiplinger

 ... 

Related metalwork





Photo: Nolan Issac via Unsplash 

 


10 comments


  • Bonnie Klehr

    Love the art of your jewelry. We’ll done!!!!! I’m an artist who came to jewelry late & always stressed the why of art that you do so well!!!


  • Tierney Zan

    I love the sad beauty of your poem.


  • Deb Durant

    ACHE.. beauty & other things


  • Debs

    All my dwellings sweetly live on, whispering of times gone by, bookmarking the spirit of my youth and the passage of time.
    so spirit reminiscent


  • Aims

    OMG! No words to describe how this hits me – simply a GASP!


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